


Baby Boom

by ShawnaCanon



Series: Baby Boom [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: All Ships Are Het, Children, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Forced Pregnancy, Mild Language, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery, Miraculous Team, No Smut, Oblivious Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Platonic Cuddling, Pregnancy, Rare Pairings, Slow Burn, Teen Pregnancy, Temporary Miraculous Holders, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-06
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:29:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 129
Words: 401,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23034028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShawnaCanon/pseuds/ShawnaCanon
Summary: Hawk Moth makes another poor akumatization decision, giving a supervillain the power to force others to make babies. He doesn’t expect it to affect himself or his son—but it does.Things between Marinette and Adrien get incredibly awkward after The Incident, but at least they’re not alone. Half their class is in the same boat.And just when everyone starts to be able to move on from that, they discover the ‘baby-making’ thing wasn’t just a euphemism. Babies are on the way. No one’s ready for it, but it’s happening, and they’re all gonna do their best to deal with it.Will this be the thing that finally gets Adrien to fall in love with Marinette? Or will Cat Noir’s insistence that he loves Ladybug and doesn’t care if she’s having some other guy’s baby be enough to win her over?
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alix Kubdel/Nathaniel Kurtzberg, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe
Series: Baby Boom [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1982216
Comments: 3452
Kudos: 3412
Collections: ScribeSmith's Fanfic Library, Vine's Absolute ML Favs





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **PLEASE READ**  
>  I’m really not sure how the reaction for this fic is going to be, and I considered not even posting it, but I figured I could put it out there and if people didn’t like it, I could just delete it. But I do have some warnings/notes, so please take these into consideration.  
> Just like how the show doesn’t exist in a very realistic world, neither does this fic. **In the world of this fic, abortion doesn’t exist.** Nor do morning-after pills or other such things. The concept of terminating a pregnancy isn’t even going to occur to anyone. (This is an ‘everyone has babies’ fic, after all, so allowing an out like that into the world would be a buzzkill.) A lot of other aspects (such as people’s/society’s reactions) are viewed through a rather optimistic view of humanity, in the same way that the show itself takes a rather optimistic view of humanity, so a lot of potential unpleasantness that would be there in a more realistic world is not present. If you’re not on-board with any of that or it’s too immersion-breaking for you, you may want to skip this fic.  
> If you’re extremely sensitive to the issue of consent and how it is handled in stories, you may want to skip this fic. (While the issue is touched on, it is not dwelt on, since it’s not the point of this fic.)  
> The characters are show-age in this fic (14 or 15, depending on the character), and there is off-screen sex (only right at the beginning) as well as references (sometimes a bit graphic/crass) to sex. If that squicks you, you may want to skip this fic.  
> Even though this story is set some time in season 3, Lila is not in the story at all. I didn’t have anything I wanted to do with her in this fic, and she’s not the kind of character that you can just push into the background if you don’t have a use for her, so I decided to eliminate her entirely. Also, which other aspects from season three are or are not part of the timeline of this story is a bit … loose. Especially any episodes with time travel or Lila. The two-part season finale is definitely not part of this timeline, though.  
> Aside from the specific exceptions I've mentioned, I base my fics purely on canon, specifically the English-language/American version of the show. Nothing else (other than my own ideas). So, there are many things that are from the French version or things which are purely fanon which you won't find in my fics. Just in case you're wondering why certain familiar fanfic elements or assumptions aren't present. I also don't usually go out of my way to figure out how something would actually be in France but just 'translate' it to the American equivalent, like the show does.  
> Timeline-wise, since this story takes place over 9+ months, there should realistically be a summer break, start of new school year, and some birthdays. But since the show is extremely fuzzy as to where we’re at in the timeline (as of late season 3) and seems to treat the passage of time in a pretty casual way, I just decided not to address any of that (I couldn’t figure out how to fit it in naturally).  
> Despite being rated M, there are not actually any smutty scenes in this story. (The only actual sex that takes place in this story is right at the beginning.)  
> For anyone reading my other fic, Who and Whose, I do still plan to finish that one, but this one grabbed me at a time when I was feeling less inspired for that other one.

“Because, Mom, I don’t _want_ kids! That’s why!”

Mabel LaCrux gaped at her daughter in disbelief across the dining table. Her twenty-eight-year-old, married daughter with a steady and flexible job, who owned her own home and had absolutely no excuses left for why she hadn’t given Mabel any grandchildren. “Annie, sweetie,” Mabel said in her kindest voice, forcing a smile onto her face, “you can’t possibly mean that. Everyone wants kids.”

Annie continued glaring at her. “No, Mom, not everyone wants kids. Me, for instance. I don’t want kids. I never have. No matter how many baby dolls you bought me, didn’t I always only play with that stuffed bear Grandpa gave me?”

That was true, but it didn’t mean anything, so Mabel ignored it. “Of course you do. Children are delightful.”

“No, they’re noisy, messy, and expensive. Whenever one of my friends comes around with their kid, I can’t wait for them to leave.”

“It’s different when they’re you’re own.”

Annie rolled her eyes. Actually _rolled her eyes_ at her own mother. “Daniel and I are perfectly happy with things the way they are.”

“You say that now, but who will take care of you when you’re old?”

“Are kids a delight, Mom, or are they an insurance policy for old age? Keep your story straight.”

Mabel had no idea where Annie had picked up such a disrespectful tone from, but it certainly wasn’t the way Mabel had raised her. “Annie, be sensible. You have to have kids.”

“Why?”

What kind of a question was that? “Because—because that’s what people _do_.” Just like people went to school and went to college and got married and got steady, eight-to-five jobs at government agencies with a business casual dress code. It was . . . well, it was the way things _were_.

Annie sighed and got up. “I should have known your lunch invitation wasn’t only about lunch. Come on, Daniel. Let’s go home.”

Her obedient husband murmured his thanks for the meal, then followed Annie out of the house.

Mabel’s fists clenched beneath the table. Why wouldn’t Annie just listen? How hard was it to have a baby or two to make her mother happy? Mabel was sure Annie would like motherhood once she tried it. What wasn’t there to like? Motherhood was the best thing in the world. Everybody knew it. Why was Annie being so stubborn?

Something dark fluttered in the corner of her eye, and then she heard a voice speaking directly into her head. “Fairy Grandmother, I am Hawk Moth. Parenthood truly is a gift, isn’t it? I’m giving you the power to give your daughter that gift, whether she wants to accept it or not. In fact, I’m giving you the power to give the entire city that gift, and all I want for myself are Ladybug and Cat Noir’s Miraculouses.”

Fairy Grandmother smiled. “It’s nice to hear someone talking sense for once, Mr. Hawk Moth.”

#

Some indeterminate time later, Gabriel Agreste came to his senses. Several things struck him at once. First, that he was on the floor, naked, and Nathalie—also naked—was underneath him, staring at him from inches away with a look of total shock. Second, that his body was feeling various things which, while familiar, were things he had not felt in well over a year. His mind instantly flooded with so many emotions and reactions—surprise, crushing guilt, fury, annoyance—that any signals his brain tried to get to his face or voice to express those reactions shorted out, and he only said in a very calm tone, “I may have miscalculated this one, Nathalie.”

“I . . . ah . . .” Nathalie, it seemed, had also gotten some of her wires crossed. He couldn’t really blame her.

The most intense sense of awkwardness he’d ever felt in his life settled in and momentarily shoved aside all his other feelings. “Excuse me,” he said, pulling out of Nathalie and getting to his feet. He found his shirt with the Butterfly Miraculous pinned to it and threw it on without bothering to button it. “Nooroo, dark wings rise.”

As soon as his powers were available, he connected with Fairy Grandmother. She was casually floating through the streets of Paris, the mind-controlling gas emanating from the wand he’d given her blanketing the city in a haze three storeys deep. No one was fighting her. No one was trying to stop her. Excluding young children and the elderly, nearly everyone around her was . . . too occupied to worry about her at all. Ladybug and Cat Noir were nowhere to be found.

Hawk Moth wanted to scream at this utter failure of a supervillain, but that would only be a waste of time. Instead, he called his akuma back to himself, turning Fairy Grandmother back into an ordinary middle-aged woman with no idea why the streets around her had spontaneously erupted into an orgy.

As he waited for the akuma to fly back to him, he looked around the room and realized that he wasn’t in his lair but was instead standing in the middle of his home studio. Fortunately, the only other person in the room was Nathalie, who was in the process of picking her clothes up off the floor and dressing.

Hawk Moth ground his teeth together. Things had gotten . . . complicated. “I’m sorry, Emilie,” he murmured. Then, louder, he said, “I’m sorry, Nathalie.”

She finished buttoning her blouse and straightened her glasses before looking up at him with a reassuring smile. “It was an accident. I don’t blame you. I . . . only wish I could remember it.”

 _An accident. Right._ As if he’d merely slipped and fallen into her. Could happen to anyone. He pinched the bridge of his nose, decided not to get into things further at this point, and used his workstation to pull up news footage. Now that Fairy Grandmother was gone and her gas was dissipating, people were coming out of the mind-control. Those who had . . . already completed the purpose of the mind-control . . . had already come out of it, as he and Nathalie had. Even though this supervillain had caused very little structural damage—especially since Ladybug and Cat Noir had apparently never showed up to fight her—the city was in utter chaos.

Well, there was nothing he could do about that now. He had his own problems to deal with. “Nooroo, dark wings fall,” he said and instantly regretted it as he found himself entirely nude aside from the unbuttoned shirt. Nathalie began handing him his clothes, which she was picking up from the floor. A surge of anger rose up and urged him to shout at someone, but this was entirely his own fault and there was no one to shout at, now that he’d deakumatized Fairy Grandmother. By the time he was dressed, the akuma had come back. He transformed just long enough to deal with it, then detransformed and nearly tore the Miraculous from his neck in order to throw it against the wall. But he resisted the hasty impulse and said, “Nathalie, make sure any security footage from the past”—he checked his watch—“hour is deleted before anyone can see it.”

She made a note on her tablet. “Yes, Mr. Agreste.”

“Nathalie.” Her name was an impatient sigh. Hearing her address him that way, looking as prim and business-like as ever, after what had just happened made him feel like one of those despicable men who used their secretaries like their own personal whores. Gabriel Agreste was _not_ one of those men. _Later. One screw-up at a time._ “Thank God Adrien was home, at least.”

Nathalie stopped tapping on her tablet and went extremely still.

“Nathalie,” Gabriel said in a probing tone, “Adrien is home, isn’t he?”

“Yes, but . . . some of his friends came over four hours ago to work on a group project. I . . . don’t think they’d left yet when you sensed the possible akuma victim.”

Gabriel’s blood went cold. “Were any of these friends of his female?”

Nathalie swallowed nervously. “Two of them.”

“Adrien!” Gabriel screamed, sprinting toward his son’s room. He kept screaming it all the way through the foyer and up the stairs until he flung open the door. “Adrien!”

A boy that Gabriel vaguely recognized was standing near Adrien’s TV. The boy jumped in fright at Gabriel’s entry. “Dude! We didn’t—I mean, we weren’t—” The boy looked down at himself, noticed his bare chest, and started scrambling.

Gabriel didn’t care about him. “Adrien!” He ran farther into the room and looked around, finding his son huddled in the middle of his bed with a blanket wrapped around himself. “Adrien?”

Adrien didn’t respond.

Gabriel looked at the other boy. “You.”

Nathalie provided, “Nino.”

“Nino,” Gabriel repeated to the boy. “What happened?”

The boy still hadn’t found his shirt, and even through his brown skin Gabriel could see Nino blush down to his chest. “I don’t really remember, but I—I think we—uh . . .” He thrust a finger toward the TV screen, where the news was playing. “It wasn’t our fault! It was a supervillain! Uh, I . . . I know that sounds lame, but—”

“I know, Nino.” Gabriel let out a defeated breath. So much for getting here in time to stop anything. If the kids had been in here since before he’d akumatized the woman, there’d never been any hope anyway. For the sake of moving the conversation forward as quickly as possible, Gabriel made a vague gesture toward Nathalie and repeated, “I know.”

Nino wasn’t a stupid boy, at least. His eyes widened and his blush deepened, but he did look a little relieved. “Right, so, uh . . . that . . . that’s what happened. Apparently.”

Gabriel went back to Adrien and knelt in front of him. Adrien’s eyes were staring off, and his body was shaking. “Adrien? Son, look at me.”

There was still no response.

So Gabriel went back to the only source of information he currently had. “What happened?” he asked again.

Nino didn’t look happy to be asked for details, but something was wrong with Adrien and Gabriel needed to know what, so he gave the other boy a pointed stare until Nino came out with it. “Alya and I came—uh, c-came to first, and we started freaking out, but then we saw Adrien and Marinette and . . .” Nino’s blush deepened again, but he pressed on. “They didn’t hear us. They didn’t see us. We tried to pull them apart, but they-they didn’t let us, and they didn’t stop until . . . until it was over.”

Yes, Gabriel had definitely miscalculated this one. Adrien had never had a girlfriend. As far as Gabriel knew, he’d never so much as kissed a girl—at least not when it wasn’t strictly for the camera, and rarely even then. And now Gabriel’s reckless quest for power had pushed his son into something he was far from ready for. Something which, by the looks of him, had traumatized him badly. But it shouldn’t have traumatized him _this_ badly. He was a fourteen-year-old boy, after all.

“What happened after?” Gabriel asked. He had to give Nino another hard glare before the boy would answer.

“They both freaked out. But Marinette—Marinette _really_ freaked out. And then that freaked Adrien out even more, and . . . I tried telling Adrien it was a supervillain controlling our minds, but I don’t know if he even heard me.”

“Where are the girls now?” Gabriel asked.

“In the bathroom. Marinette’s been crying.” Nino looked away, and for a moment, his face twisted like he might cry himself. “I—I think they both are.”

“Nathalie,” Gabriel said wearily, “clear my schedule.”


	2. Chapter 2

Marinette huddled on the floor in the back of Adrien’s shower—the farthest she could get from the door to his bedroom—with Alya sitting beside her, both of them wrapped in towels. Marinette had fled into the bathroom too quickly to even think of looking for her clothes, and Alya had chased after her immediately.

“It’ll be all right,” Alya said, gently rubbing Marinette’s back. She didn’t sound entirely convincing, given how tight her voice was and the redness in her eyes.

All Marinette could do was let out another loud sob. It was too much. It was all just too much. She knew that some people might say she ought to be happy. She’d always wanted to be closer to Adrien, after all. But that was like telling someone you like chocolate cake and them expecting you to be happy when they try to drown you in a giant vat of frosting. She’d only wanted to see Adrien smile at her, to hold his hand and—maybe, in her wildest daydreams—to kiss him. Not this. Especially not _like_ this.

She was glad she couldn’t actually remember what they’d done, but her skin still felt the warmth of his where they’d been touching in that brief, horrible instant between regaining awareness and being pulled apart by Alya and Nino. And there’d been that awful, skin-crawling feeling of something sliding out of a part of her body she was normally not even consciously aware of.

A part of her body that was so, _so_ sore right now.

Marinette sobbed again—loud, ugly sobs—and rubbed her hands over her face, trying in vain to stop the tears and snot. “It hurts,” she whimpered.

“I know,” Alya said soothingly. “Me, too. But it’s not their fault. You know that, right?”

Marinette’s throat clenched, so she nodded because she couldn’t speak.

“It was the supervillain’s mind control,” Alya continued, though she’d already mentioned this more than once since they’d been in here. “The news was already talking about it while Nino and I were trying to . . . well, pry you two apart.”

Humiliation so strong it made her want to die briefly overtook Marinette’s other confused feelings. “How bad was it?”

“You were . . . kinda latched onto him like a barnacle, girl.”

Marinette knew it was the magical mind control that had made her do it, but Alya’s words made her feel like a shameless slut.

Maybe Alya could see it in her face, because she put a hand on Marinette’s shoulder and shook gently. “It wasn’t your—wasn’t _our_ —fault either, remember. We’re all victims here.”

Victims of Hawk Moth and his akumatized villain. But Marinette shouldn’t have let herself become his victim. She was the one person with the power to stop him. Cat Noir helped, yes, and she needed his help, but _she_ was the only one with the power to purify the akumas, so the responsibility ultimately fell on her. And she’d screwed up. She’d let everyone down. She’d caused this whole messy, horrible situation by her own inaction. She’d let herself get distracted by Adrien—

Adrien. What if he knew she was Ladybug and could have— _should_ have—stopped all this but didn’t? What if he found out she was in love with him? Would he think she let it happen deliberately in order to take advantage of him? Would he hate her for it?

Her feelings for Adrien right now were so confused, she didn’t know what to think or what to want, but the thought of him hating her—the idea that he might suspect her of letting this happen on purpose—made her chest tighten like a fist around her heart, and she let out another loud sob.

#

Adrien was vaguely aware of his father trying to talk to him, but he didn’t hear anything Gabriel said. All he heard were the pained sobs and whimpers coming from the other side of the bathroom door. All he saw was the smeared spot on the floor about two feet in front of the door. The spot that seemed to get bigger the longer Adrien stared at it. He was no expert on this sort of thing, but he _had_ paid attention when his mother had given him the talk, and that sure seemed like more blood than there should have been.

Everything had been going fine. A couple hours ago, he’d been blissfully, innocently happy to have his friends over for a visit. Nino had cracked some jokes. Marinette had gotten tongue-tied about something or other. And then Alya had spotted that strange haze outside.

None of them had suspected what it was quickly enough. Alya had turned on the TV to check the news, but it had been a reflex more than real concern.

The haze of gas was already at the mansion gates by the time it was clear it wasn’t anything natural and the news was reporting people acting strangely. Adrien tried to duck into the bathroom, planning to lock it, transform, and jump out the window. But when he got to the door, Marinette was trying to get through too, saying she needed to use the bathroom urgently. Adrien should have just pushed his way past her, but politeness was so ingrained in him that he wasted precious seconds trying to argue with her. Then he heard something weird near the open bedroom windows and saw Nino and Alya suddenly making out like there was no tomorrow. His brain didn’t work nearly as fast as the gas did, and the next thing he knew . . .

A shudder wracked his body as he huddled under the blanket. He clenched his eyes shut, but that only made it worse, since his stupid brain had taken a permanent snapshot of what he’d seen next. Marinette’s shocked and terrified face. Marinette’s bare skin. Her bare . . . b-breasts. Marinette scrambling to cover herself as she backed away from him like he was the most horrifying thing she’d ever seen.

But as much as he wished he could scrub those memories from his brain, it was nothing to his desire to scrub away the memory of how she’d felt. It had only been a second or two before they’d been pulled apart, but Adrien remembered how she’d felt against him. Her skin. Her . . .

His gut twisted. He had no right to know what any part of the _inside_ of Marinette felt like. But he did, and he hated that knowledge with every fiber of his being.

Adrien heard Nino’s explanations about how it had been a villain that had made them do . . . what they’d done. He could tell that Nino was trying to make him feel better about it, but it didn’t work. Because the fact that this was all caused by Hawk Moth only made it even more Adrien’s fault.

It was his job to stop Hawk Moth. Whatever trouble Hawk Moth stirred up was Adrien’s job to take care of. And he’d failed to even suit up. Failed to even get out of the building. He’d been slow to react, and because of him, his friends had been hurt. Who-knew-how-many other people in the city had been hurt. Because of him. Because he sucked at his most important responsibility.

He wondered what had happened to Ladybug. Had she managed to fight off the villain without him? She must have, if the gas was gone and everything was . . . well, had stopped getting worse. But he hadn’t seen any magic ladybugs, and wouldn’t they have helped fix . . . _something_ if they’d come through?

Was any of this something they could fix? Could the magic ladybugs turn back time and make it so none of this had ever happened? Could they make Marinette stop crying? Could they clean her blood off the floor? Could they scrub the hated memories from Adrien’s brain?

He needed to talk to Ladybug as soon as he could. As soon as . . . he could bring himself to face her.

“I hate him,” Adrien said, the harsh sound a shock to his own ears. “Hawk Moth went too far this time.” This was different from all the times he’d made Cat Noir try to kill Ladybug. Somehow, this was worse. Maybe because _attempted_ murder wasn’t as bad as _actual_ ra—

A warm, solid hand landed on his shoulder, and Adrien jerked. His father’s face was in front of him, wearing an expression that was serious but . . . not quite something Adrien could interpret. “He did, son. But we’ll get through this.”

_Father. He knows what I did. He knows . . ._ Adrien was suddenly aware of how naked he still was under the blanket. He recoiled in shame from his father’s gaze, but Gabriel’s hand on his shoulder held him firm.

“It’s not your fault, Adrien,” his father told him. “But this does need to be dealt with, and it’s going to be messy. We’re going to take it one step at a time, all right?”

Adrien couldn’t remember the last time his father had reassured him about anything, and he took comfort in it. _One step at a time. One step at a time._ That sounded good. “What . . . what’s the next step?”

“Getting dressed.” Gabriel stood and pulled some of Adrien’s clothes from his dresser. While he did so, Nathalie moved to the bathroom and opened the door wide enough to stick her head in and ask softly if the girls needed anything.

Faintly, Adrien heard Alya ask if they could have some ibuprofen.

Adrien shuddered and very nearly broke inside. He saw movement in the corner of his eye and turned his head in time to see Nino fall onto the sofa and bury his face in his hands.

“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” Gabriel told him, handing him a stack of clothes.

Adrien looked at him in shock. How could he say that?

“The physical pain, I mean,” Gabriel said tightly.

“She’s bleeding.” Adrien’s voice was hollow, and he could hardly get the words out, but he felt it needed to be addressed.

“Of course she’s bleeding. She’s young and—” Gabriel let out a breath and rubbed his forehead. “Nathalie, could you please check on the girls? Make sure there’s nothing _abnormally_ wrong with them?”

“Yes, sir.” She gathered up the pieces of girls’ clothing from the floor with silent efficiency and went into the bathroom.

“Get dressed,” Gabriel ordered.

Adrien wanted to crawl even deeper under his blankets, but he took the opportunity while the ladies were all out of the room and got dressed. By the time he was done, Nino had found the rest of his own clothes and put them on. Adrien moved toward his friend, but he had a hard time looking Nino in the eye for more than a second. Part of it was shame. Part of it was the fact that he’d seen both Nino and Alya naked, and what they’d seen of him was even worse.

Nino was having the same problem with looking Adrien in the eye. “Dude,” Nino said to the floor by Adrien’s feet, “what do we do?”

“I wish I knew,” Adrien murmured in Nino’s general direction.

Nathalie came out of the bathroom alone, shutting the door behind her. “I think it’s best to give the girls some space and time to deal with recent events.”

That made sense. Of course they’d want space. But it still hurt that he wouldn’t be allowed to try to fix this yet. Not that he had any idea how to fix things between him and Marinette. But his chest hurt at the idea of leaving it like this indefinitely.

“Right,” Nino said. He picked up his bag and, without looking at Adrien, told him, “Later,” before leaving the room.

Adrien was standing by his bed, trying to figure out if he should go to a different part of the mansion until the girls left, when the bathroom door opened and Alya and Marinette came out, Alya’s arm wrapped supportively around Marinette’s shoulders. It was obvious that Marinette had washed her face, but she couldn’t hide the redness around her eyes or the fact that the whites of her eyes were pink.

“Marinette,” Adrien said, taking an instinctive step toward her to help.

She recoiled from him, burying herself into Alya’s side, pain twisting her face.

Adrien felt like he’d been stabbed, and the reproving glances from his father and Nathalie didn’t help. But physically, he was fine. Marinette was the one who’d bled, the one who’d needed painkillers. Because of what Adrien had done to her.

He slunk away, backing up until his legs hit the side of his bed, then sat down and ducked his head, hiding from the shame, the pain, and her.

He heard the shuffling of shoes as the girls hurried past him out of the room, followed by Nathalie.

That was it, then. His brief time of having friends was over, because there was no coming back from this. Even if she didn’t blame him because they’d both been mind-controlled, there was no way to recover his friendship with Marinette after what they’d done. She already acted nervous around him sometimes for no reason that he could see. From the way she’d been just now, she probably never wanted to be in the same room with him again. And Adrien didn’t know how he’d ever look Nino or Alya in the face again, much less go back to the casual friendship they’d all had.

“Are you going to take me out of school?” Adrien asked, almost hoping his father would say yes.

“No, Adrien,” Gabriel said in an uncharacteristically gentle tone. “Because that wouldn’t help and”—he sighed—“this isn’t over.”

Adrien looked up at him. “What do you mean?”

Gabriel waved a tired hand at him as he headed for the door. “One step at a time, son. One step at a time.”

After Gabriel left, Plagg finally showed himself. “I’m sorry, kid,” he said.

“Couldn’t you have stopped us?” Adrien asked harshly. “Couldn’t you have stopped _me_?”

“We tried, kid,” Plagg answered. “There wasn’t anything we could do.”

“We?”

“ _I_. There wasn’t anything _I_ could do. And believe me, I tried, but you were like a March hare. You ever see a hare in March, Adrien? There’s a reason they’re known for being mad.”

“Plagg, please, shut up!” Adrien buried his face in his pillow.

The next time Plagg spoke, his voice was close to Adrien’s ear. “I’ll admit, I don’t really get this whole biological reproduction thing you humans have going on, but I’ve been around long enough to know that usually humans like doing it, especially you male humans.”

“There’s a time and a place, Plagg,” Adrien said into his pillow. “And something called consent.”

When Adrien turned his head to look at Plagg, the kwami was eating cheese he’d pulled from somewhere. “So, it’s contextual. I get it. Well, I don’t, but I can see that what happened hurt you, so I’m sorry for that.”

“It did hurt me, but it hurt Marinette more.”

“She’s a tough girl. I’m sure she’ll get over it.”

Adrien knew Plagg meant well (probably), but the kwami’s tone was so flippant that it made Adrien want to grab him and shake some sensitivity into him. Instead, he hauled himself back into a sitting position and said, “Plagg, claws out.”

There was only one hope left, and if there was any chance at all that Ladybug hadn’t used her magic yet and could still try to fix things, he had to find out as soon as possible.


	3. Chapter 3

Marinette saw a lot of crashed cars on the way home, but none of the accidents looked very serious. There was some other damage, too, but nothing as bad as a supervillain usually causes.

At first, no one spoke in the car. Alya had her phone up where they could both watch, streaming the local news. The villain’s name had been Fairy Grandmother, but the only footage they showed of her was from a distance, with hastily (and heavily) pixelated backgrounds. There were a few brief close-ups where they could hear her ranting something about babies, but those shots never lasted long enough to really hear what had gotten her worked up enough to be akumatized. Most likely, the camera operators had fallen under the effects of her gas before they could record anything lengthy.

This had been a truly city-wide attack. Even the news anchors and first responders being interviewed looked alarmed and uncertain. It sounded like no one had really gotten hurt, though, at least not in the usual buildings-falling-on-them sort of way.

The sound of Marinette’s phone ringing made her jump. Panic nearly overwhelmed her for a moment, irrationally thinking it was Adrien trying to talk things out. But she forced herself to look at the phone screen.

“Mom,” she whispered to Alya. Her panic didn’t subside. They were nearly to her house, but if she didn’t answer at all, her mom might worry more. “Hi, Mom,” she said into the phone, trying to sound normal.

“Marinette?” Her mom sounded like she was trying to hide how worried she was. “Are you okay?”

Marinette tried to say yes, but the lie wouldn’t come. “No,” she whimpered.

“Oh, honey.” Sabine sounded like she was about to reach through the phone to hug her. “Where are you?”

“Almost home.” As soon as she said it, the car pulled up to her door. Alya gave her a quick hug before Marinette burst out of the car and ran inside.

Straight into her mother’s waiting arms. Sabine dropped the phone and squeezed Marinette tight. Tom’s huge arms wrapped around them both.

Her parents let her go sooner than Marinette would have liked. Her eyes were full of tears, but she fought them back. She didn’t want to cry again. Her head was already pounding and her eyes stung from the bathroom crying.

“You were caught by the gas?” Sabine asked gently and unnecessarily.

Marinette nodded, clenching her jaw against the cries that wanted to emerge.

“Who was it?” Tom asked. His tone was soft, but there was a sharp edge to it.

“Not his fault,” Marinette said, shaking her head. The last thing the situation needed was her dad going all vengeful father on Adrien.

“We know that,” Sabine assured her, “and you don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to. We’re only . . . trying to find out how bad it is.”

Marinette covered her face with her hands, unable to look at them when she said, “Adrien.”

“Oh, honey,” Sabine said sympathetically, pulling Marinette into another hug. Tom actually looked _relieved_ , of all things.

“I—I need to go to my room.” Marinette pulled away and ran upstairs before they could ask anything else.

As soon as she collapsed on her bed, fighting hard against more tears, Tikki came out and stroked her forehead. “I’m so sorry, Marinette.”

“But it’s my fault, Tikki. I should have stopped Fairy Grandmother. I should have been paying more attention and gotten to her before she could do this to everyone. I should have—”

“You can’t be everywhere at once,” Tikki soothed. “This villain moved fast—much faster than normal. You can’t blame yourself.”

Marinette sat up. “But I can, Tikki! Who else is there to blame?”

“Hawk Moth!”

“Well . . . yeah. But Hawk Moth is the supervillain. I have to expect him to do evil stuff. I have to anticipate it or at least respond to it in time. And I didn’t.”

“Marinette, stop beating yourself up. No other Ladybug could have done better. And it’s over now, so—”

“Tikki!” Marinette yelped in realization. “It’s over! But I didn’t stop it! What happened?”

Tikki considered it. “Hawk Moth must have called the akuma back on his own. Maybe he had an attack of conscience when he saw what was happening.”

“Or maybe he realized it wasn’t working because I wasn’t showing up.” She hadn’t stopped to wonder if Cat Noir had managed to show up. Grabbing her phone, she pulled up the Ladyblog. In the few seconds it took to load the page, she realized she was being stupid. Obviously Alya wouldn’t have had time to update it, with everything that had happened. But either this was how Alya distracted herself or her journalistic instincts were too strong to let personal problems get in the way, because the Ladyblog already had a compilation of links on the latest attack. “Cat Noir didn’t show up either,” Marinette noted aloud. She went to the comments section, where at least eighty percent of the comments were speculation that Ladybug and Cat Noir had probably gotten caught by the gas and were too busy screwing to save Paris. Most of the comments weren’t saying it in an accusing way, but Marinette felt the accusation all the same. She couldn’t be sure about Cat Noir, but Ladybug had definitely been too busy screwing to save Paris.

She dropped the phone and flopped back down on her bed with a groan.

“Look on the bright side,” Tikki offered. “At least it was Adrien.”

Marinette fisted her hands in her eyes, trying to physically stop the tears from coming out. “At least it was Adrien? Tikki, that makes it worse! Now everything with Adrien is completely messed up!”

“Who else would you have rather it been?”

Thinking about that wasn’t going to help anything, especially since the answer was obviously ‘no one’, and that answer kind of defeated the purpose of the question. But she also couldn’t stand to lie here and remember what had happened—what little she could remember of it, that was—nor could she do anything right now to fix how messed up her friendships had become.

But there was one thing she could try to fix. She knew it was a long shot, but she had to try it. “Tikki, spots on!”

#

Cat Noir hadn’t been searching long before Ladybug finally answered his video call. The tiny image of her on the screen inside his stick made his stomach flutter with nerves and shame, but he tried to hide it.

“Cat Noir. You’re safe.”

“Y-yeah. Where are you?”

She told him. “I know the akuma is already gone, but I’m going to try to clean it up anyway.”

“Wait for me,” he said, then bounded in her direction.

They met up on top of the Arc de Triomphe.

“I’m sorry, Milady,” he told her, because it had to be said. “I wasn’t able to get to Fairy Grandmother in time . . . well, at all. I couldn’t do anything.”

“Me neither, Kitty,” she said sadly. “Me neither.”

Which meant she’d been caught by the gas, too. Which meant she’d been . . .

His fist clenched. He’d wanted his first time to be special. He’d wanted it to be with the woman he loved and wanted to spend his life with, when they were older and the time was right. He’d wanted it to be romantic. He’d wanted it to be with _her_.

At the very least, he’d wanted to remember it.

“My first kiss was under Hawk Moth’s mind control,” he growled more to himself than to her. “And now this. And I can’t even remember either one.” Though he didn’t really want to remember _this_ first time. Happening _this_ way. If they’d all woken up naked and spread out on the floor well after it was all over, it would have still been awful, but it wouldn’t have been as bad as keeping the fleeting memories he did have.

To his surprise, Ladybug echoed his own thoughts. “I remember too much. Not much at all, but . . . too much.” Then she stretched her arm and yo-yo into the air, shouting, “Lucky Charm!” A spotted gas mask fell into her hand.

Cat Noir looked at it over her shoulder. “Yeah, that would have come in handy.”

She didn’t comment, only tossed the mask upward and shouted, “Miraculous Ladybug!”

The brilliant magical swarm flowed around them, momentarily blocking out their view of the city before moving on. The swarm leapt and danced all over Paris, sorting out crashed cars and dropped packages and whatever other miscellaneous damage Fairy Grandmother had caused.

And then the magic ladybugs disappeared, and Cat Noir still remembered what Marinette’s body felt like. “Do you . . . think anything changed?” he asked just to make sure, knowing she would know what he meant. Did anything _important_ change?

Ladybug shook her head.

It was quiet and awkward for several seconds. Ladybug stood looking out on the Champs-Élysées. Cat Noir squatted casually next to her.

“Was he . . . at least your boyfriend or something?” Cat Noir ventured. Last he knew, she didn’t have a boyfriend, but for her sake he momentarily hoped his information was out of date.

Ladybug shook her head again. “He was . . . the boy I like.”

The reminder—and the news—shot an ice pick into Cat Noir’s heart. “Oh. Well, that’s . . . good.”

“No,” she said. “No, it’s not.”

He wasn’t quite sure what she meant, but he knew how badly this whole thing had messed up his own relationships, so he supposed it wouldn’t be all that different for her. If he had gotten out of the house and met up with Ladybug before the gas hit them—assuming Ladybug hadn’t thought to use her Lucky Charm and get that gas mask ahead of time—would he have been the one regretting that he’d been with the person he loved when the gas hit? Would his relationship with Ladybug be the one that was now so horribly screwed up?

Part of him did kind of wish that if it’d had to be anyone, it would have been her. But most of him knew things would probably be a lot worse now if it had been. Not least because in order to . . . to do that, they would have had to drop their transformations. And that would have added a whole additional set of complications to the mix.

“You know I love you, Milady,” he said, not acknowledging her look of surprise, “but I think I’m glad it wasn’t you. If . . . you know what I mean.”

She laid a hand on his shoulder. “I do, Kitty. And . . . me, too.”

He stood and tried his best to smile. “Call me if you need me, Bug. And good luck.”

#

When Alya showed up unexpectedly at Marinette’s house that evening, Tom and Sabine didn’t bat an eye, even though it was Sunday and therefore a school night. They hadn’t asked Marinette any more details about what had happened or how she felt about it, understanding without asking that she needed time to process.

Marinette and Alya sat around, watching shows on Marinette’s computer while they ate cookies. They played a few video games. Marinette showed her some of her newer design projects. And eventually, Marinette asked, “How did your parents take it?”

Alya tried to look casual but didn’t quite pull it off. “I barely had to say anything. And as soon as I started, Nora helped deflect the blow by confessing that she’d ended up pinned to the mat by one of her male sparring partners, and not in the usual way. Besides, Mom and Dad felt the effects of the gas themselves, so it wasn’t like they didn’t know none of us had any control.”

Marinette almost choked on a cookie. “Your parents? Did they, um . . .”

Now Alya almost choked, waving a hand in front of her as she coughed. “No. They just both ended up going catatonic for a while. They said it was like they just froze in the middle of what they were doing, then woke up suddenly when the gas dissipated. Which was still kinda lively, since Dad was at work feeding a panther and Mom was home watching the twins. They both had some trouble to clean up when they came to. Why? Did your parents . . .”

Marinette nodded uncomfortably. “They said it in the nicest, least creepy way they could, but yeah. They were both in the bakery when the gas hit, and . . . I think they just wanted me to know that they understood what had happened and didn’t blame either of us.”

“You told them it was Adrien?”

Marinette felt her face heat as she nodded.

Apparently Alya could see how uncomfortable she still was talking about him and chose not to follow that line of thought any further. “So, uh . . . Nino called me.”

Adrien hadn’t tried to call Marinette. Not that she really expected him to. “Did you answer?”

“Yeah. It wasn’t an easy talk, but we had to do it. He’s my boyfriend, you know? I love him. We had to work through it.”

Marinette wished she had such a good reason why things would have to be all right between her and Adrien, but she knew it would be a lot easier for him to just cut off contact with her and avoid the uncomfortableness. “Did you?”

“I think so. It’s still weird, and it’s gonna be weird for a while. But neither of us blames the other for anything. He apologized anyway, even after I told him not to, but he said . . . he said he hated to see that he’d hurt me, even if he didn’t mean to. And he wanted to reassure me that he didn’t think this meant we’re going to do anything like that again soon. That all our regular boundaries are still in place. That he wants things to go right back to how they were as if it hadn’t happened. If that’s possible. I’m not sure it is, but it’s what I want, too, so we’re gonna try.”

“You have such a good boyfriend, Alya. Honestly, I’m jealous.”

Alya smirked and bumped shoulders with her. “Hey, you had your shot. You snooze, you lose. He’s mine now.”

Marinette chuckled. “I’m happy for you.”

Alya opened her mouth, and Marinette could see she wanted to say something about Adrien, but Marinette pulled away and Alya got the hint, instead saying, “Maybe we should go to sleep. I don’t think they’ve cancelled school on account of extreme awkwardness yet, so we’ll probably need our rest.”


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning, Adrien got up and got ready for school as usual, not at all certain he actually wanted to go. Going would mean seeing Marinette. And Alya. And Nino. And things would be so uncomfortable, he didn’t know if he could handle it. What if one or all of them couldn’t stand to look at him or talk to him anymore? And what would the other kids say? Even if no one said anything, the unavoidable awkwardness would draw attention.

But he supposed it needed to be faced, sooner or later, so it may as well be sooner. The only other option was dropping out of school and giving up on keeping his friends without even trying.

When he went down to breakfast, Adrien found, to his utter bewilderment, his father already seated at the table and part-way through a plate of food.

“Good morning, Adrien,” Gabriel said as if eating breakfast together were a normal occurrence.

“G-good morning, Father.” Adrien hurried to sit and get his food, not so much because he was hungry but because if they were both eating at the same time, that meant they were actually having a meal together.

“How are you doing?”

Adrien almost dropped the bacon he’d just picked up. Since when did his father casually ask about his welfare? But Gabriel had made the effort, so Adrien decided to answer honestly. “I . . . I’m not sure I want to go to school.”

“Oh?”

“I mean, I’m going to. I’m just not sure I want to.” He winced, remembering how Marinette had looked the last time he’d seen her. The fear in her eyes. How she’d cringed away from him.

Gabriel sighed. “I’m sorry about all of this. If I could make it easier for you, I would. But you’re right; it’s going to be very difficult. If you do decide to stay home, I’ll allow it.”

“Thank you, Father, but no. I need to do this. And there’s no need for you to say you’re sorry. The only one who should be sorry about all this is Hawk Moth.”

Gabriel was quiet after that, neatly eating the rest of his breakfast until Adrien stood to go.

“Thank you for eating with me this morning, Father. I . . . wish we could do this more often.” His father didn’t respond, so Adrien gathered his bag and headed for the car.

There weren’t many people in the school courtyard this morning. Not as many as could usually be found hanging out there before class, anyway. Most likely, Adrien wasn’t the only one who wanted to hide as long as possible.

In the locker room, he found Alya and Nino quietly talking together on one of the benches. They weren’t holding hands or touching in any other way that Adrien could see, but they were talking, and that looked like a solid step back toward normalcy.

As soon as he spotted them, Adrien tried to back away quietly and not be noticed, but he should have known he wasn’t so lucky.

“Adrien,” Nino said, and Alya turned to look at him as well. “Uh, dude. Hi.”

He’d been too distracted by Marinette to get a good look at Alya yesterday, but he’d gotten enough of a look to blush when he saw her now. “H-hi, guys.”

“Hey, Adrien,” Alya said, clearly trying to hide how awkward she felt. He was pretty sure she’d gotten more than a passing glance at him, so he appreciated her attempt. She was actually doing a pretty good job of sounding almost normal.

He stared at the bench. What on earth was he supposed to say now? Anything referencing yesterday would make things even more awkward, and everything he could think of was somehow referencing yesterday. But trying to act like everything was normal and yesterday never happened seemed so ridiculous it would also draw even more attention to yesterday because he was trying so hard to avoid it.

Adrien backed away. “See you in class.” He turned to go.

“Didn’t you need your locker?” Alya asked.

Adrien froze in his tracks, then forced his feet to move to his locker. Stiffly, he got his things sorted without looking at Alya and Nino.

“Adrien,” Alya said softly, “it’s okay. We all feel weird. But we’ll get past it.”

“Yeah, dude,” Nino added, just as softly. “You’re still my best bud. You know that, right?”

Adrien didn’t turn away from his locker so they wouldn’t see the wetness in his eyes. “Thanks, guys.”

No one mentioned Marinette.

She wasn’t there when they got to class, so Adrien was able to slide into his seat and keep his head down, pretending to check over his homework. But he knew even that wouldn’t last long. With their small class size and everybody knowing each other so well, all the gossip simply had to be shared before class would be allowed to start.

“Come on, really?” Chloe asked, already turned around in her seat to face behind her. The only one still missing was Marinette, so the gossip was already in full swing. “You expect us to believe that?”

Ivan shrugged.

“But you two are always together,” Alix said.

“Not always.” Mylène sounded a little exasperated. “I was home doing homework yesterday, and Ivan was visiting relatives outside of Paris.”

Chloe waved her hand. “Whatever. Who even cares?”

“Man, I thought you two were a sure thing,” Kim commented.

Adrien peeked behind him to see a scowl form on Ivan’s face. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“And what about you?” Mylène asked Kim before Ivan’s anger could build up.

Kim’s usual confidence instantly dampened. “I, uh, was at the pool with Ondine, and . . . um . . .”

From the scattered reactions, it was clear that this first piece of juicy gossip had hit its mark.

“Did you do it in the water?” Alix asked in what weirdly sounded like a competitive tone. But Alix was pretty much always competitive, especially with Kim. Adrien didn’t try to understand it.

“Uh, when we woke up, we were actually . . . under the water.”

“Dude,” Alix observed.

“We almost drowned!”

“I can’t decide if that’s awesome or incredibly lame.”

 _How could any of this be awesome?_ Adrien wondered, but kept it to himself.

“And you have a better story?” Kim challenged.

Curiosity getting the better of him, Adrien turned enough to look at Alix . . . and from the corner of his eye caught Nathaniel ducking behind his sketch pad.

_Oh, no._

Alix folded her arms as if about to claim a decisive victory. “Nathaniel and I were hanging out at the Louvre when the gas hit. Let’s just say a certain Vermeer was not the same afterward.”

Nathaniel was still trying to hide behind his sketch pad, but he wasn’t doing it well enough to completely disguise the fact that his face had gone as red as his hair.

Kim laughed heartily and gave Alix a congratulatory high-five, which she accepted with a victorious, “Yeah!”

Nathaniel sprang to his feet and slammed his palms onto his desk. “Alix! That was the most traumatic experience of my life! Could you _not_ high-five about it?!”

She spun on him, her face transforming from happy to angry in an instant, and shouted back, “This is how I cope, Nath! Would you just give me this?! You owe me at least that much after you destroyed my crotch with your giant dick!”

“It is _not_ giant!” Nathaniel practically screamed. “You’re just tiny!”

Adrien heard Nino whisper a shocked, “Dude,” which seemed to be directed at him, so he nodded in agreement. Things had gotten out of hand fast.

The whole class was stunned silent, which allowed Nathaniel to carry on without realizing the effect he was having. “Besides, you were the one on top of me! So if anything—”

“Students!” Miss Bustier called, clapping loudly. She’d been standing in the front of the room, waiting for the clock to tick over and for everyone to get their gossip out, but when the screaming started, it was time for teacher intervention.

Her interruption gave Nathaniel the chance to see that everyone was staring at him in shock. He tried to sink back into his seat and hide, but Miss Bustier called him and Alix forward.

Was she really going to try her usual method of conflict resolution?

Like two kicked dogs, they slunk up to the front of the class.

Miss Bustier made them face each other (though she couldn’t get them to _look_ at each other) and put a hand on each of their shoulders. “I understand that what happened yesterday was very frightening and traumatic, and it’ll take everyone who was affected some time to work through it. But you two are friends, and nothing that happened yesterday was either of your faults. You both know that, right?”

They both nodded, still refusing to meet each other’s eyes.

“So, do you want to keep being friends, or do you want to let something that neither of you had control over take that friendship from you?”

Neither of them answered for a moment, then they both muttered, “I want to keep being friends,” more or less in unison.

“Of course you do,” Miss Bustier said, smiling warmly. “Now, I want you to give each other a hug and an apology.”

Alix and Nathaniel were obviously extremely hesitant to touch each other, but after a couple false starts, they managed a quick, barely-making-contact hug.

“I can’t believe that worked,” Nino whispered.

“Miss Bustier is amazing,” Adrien agreed.

Alix’s eyes flicked between Nathaniel and the floor as she said, “I’m sorry for shouting at you. And for . . . making you feel like I don’t care about your feelings.”

“I’m sorry for shouting, too,” Nathaniel responded, barely meeting her eyes. “And I-I’m sorry for d-destroying your crotch.”

There was a beat of silence before Alya let out a muffled giggle. Then Rose and Mylène joined in. Then Juleka and Sabrina.

“Well, that was both adorable and revolting,” Chloe sneered.

Adrien had no idea what all the girls were laughing at (even Miss Bustier seemed to be fighting to hold something back), and all the boys could only exchange confused looks with each other, but the mood was lightened back to non-oppressive levels, so Adrien accepted it.

Both blushing bright red, Alix and Nathaniel returned to their seats.

Adrien sensed more than saw Marinette sneak through the door and slide into her seat. Or almost into her seat. Instead of moving past Alya to sit where she normally did, directly behind Adrien, she let Alya scoot over so Marinette was behind Nino.

Adrien’s heart stuttered and thumped, and he felt his whole body heat up. No matter how suspicious Adrien knew avoiding looking at Marinette would be, he couldn’t force himself to give her even a quick glance lest he make eye contact.

He wanted to fix things with her; he really did. But even knowing she was in such close proximity to him made his sense memory throw things into the forefront of his brain that he really wanted gone forever. And what if they ended up shouting at each other like Alix and Nathaniel?

Then again, that had worked out okay, thanks to Miss Bustier. Maybe it was better to face the issue while Miss Bustier was here to help smooth things over.

Speaking of Miss Bustier . . .

Adrien glanced at the clock and noticed that class should have started two minutes ago, yet Miss Bustier showed no signs of trying to get everyone settled down so they could start class. Which meant she thought the group as a whole needed to work all of this out before they could get back on track with school stuff. It was probably necessary, really, but it meant that no matter how much he tried to hide, his humiliation really was inevitable.

Maybe it was better to do it now, though, while the humiliation was getting spread all around at once.

“And why are you sneaking in late, Dupain-Cheng?” Chloe asked loudly enough for the whole class to pay attention. “Care to tell us what you were doing yesterday?”

 _Not yet! Not yet!_ Adrien’s heart rate spiked, and he stared at his desk as non-suspiciously as he could. He knew this would happen now, but not _now_ now!

Alya threw herself on that particular grenade, seemingly ignoring Chloe to announce, “Since we’re all oversharing, you might as well know that Nino and I got caught by the gas.” She said it so casually, like she was describing getting caught in traffic, even though Adrien could tell from how she’d been earlier that she wasn’t as over it as she pretended.

There were a few reaction noises from the class, but no one sounded especially surprised. The real gossip right now would come from something _unexpected_. Something like Adrien and Marinette.

“Pfft.” Chloe waved a dismissive hand at them. “Nobody cares about that. You two are practically an old married couple already.”

Everyone would have cared about it if the news had come on any other day, but it was all a matter of perspective at this point.

Alya propped her elbow on her desk and her chin on her hand. “And what about you, Chloe? Any new boyfriends you want to tell us about?”

Since Adrien still felt twitchy when he looked at Alya, he quickly looked away from her to watch Chloe, so he saw the faint pink tinge in her cheeks even though most of the others probably didn’t.

“As if,” Chloe said derisively. “Like I would let myself get caught up in such a peasant problem. As soon as I saw one of the maids grab Jean-Maurice and start tearing off his clothes, Sabrina and I ran to into the pantry and hid until it was over.”

Sabrina hesitated just a second or two too long before nodding vigorously and saying, “That’s right! That’s all that happened! Which is to say, nothing happened!”

Probably to keep the attention from going back to Marinette, Alya said, “What about you, Max? You’re being awfully quiet.”

Max shrugged and smiled in the carefree way of someone with nothing to hide. “I was in my room playing video games at the time. Though I did wonder why one second I was on my way to a high score and the next I was on a game over screen.”

The sounds of Marinette’s feet shifting nervously on the floor behind Adrien were much louder than they should have been. At least, Adrien hoped the shifting was because of nervousness and not physical discomfort.

They were running out of other people to use as distractions. “Juleka?” Alya asked.

Juleka spoke barely loud enough for Adrien to hear, but that was usual for her. “I was at home with Mom and Luka.”

A deeply uncomfortable silence fell over the classroom. Everyone suddenly wanted to know the same thing, but no one was brave enough to ask. Their wide, worried eyes seemed to speak for themselves, though.

Juleka sat straight and slightly raised her voice in alarm. “What? No! We all just zoned out! Nothing happened!”

The entire class breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Alya tapped a pencil on her desk. “It’s good to know that there were _some_ limits placed on that magic, I guess.”

“Not enough,” Nathaniel muttered.

Rose raised her hand to volunteer, “I was taking a nap, so I missed the whole thing.”

Adrien’s eyes slid closed in dread. That was everyone.

It was Rose who asked, in her sweet, innocent way, “What about you, Marinette?”


	5. Chapter 5

Marinette had been crossing and uncrossing her ankles ever since she’d sat down, but it wasn’t doing anything to alleviate her nervous energy. She wasn’t sure what she’d been hoping to gain by deliberately coming in at the last second, but whatever it was, it obviously hadn’t worked.

“Miss Bustier,” she said, pretending she hadn’t head Rose, “isn’t it time for class to start?”

Miss Bustier smiled in a sympathetic, understanding sort of way. “Yes, but I don’t think we’ll be able to get much accomplished until everyone works through their excitement and anxiety about what happened yesterday. Don’t you think?”

“I . . . guess so.” The importance Miss Bustier placed on group harmony was usually something Marinette liked. Not so much today.

“How ’bout it, Marinette?” Kim asked. “Got anything to share?”

All she could see of Adrien was the back of his head and his hunched shoulders, reminding her of a turtle trying to pull its head into its shell. He hadn’t met her eyes once this morning, even though from the way he was deliberately avoiding turning around very far, she knew he knew she was there.

He was probably disgusted by what had happened—not just that it had happened, but that it had been her. Or maybe he hated her for it, even without knowing she was Ladybug and should have stopped it. Hate and disgust didn’t always make sense, so even if he believed it wasn’t her fault at all, he could still hate her. But he wasn’t looking at her, so she really had no idea what he was thinking or how he felt.

She tried to smile in the same easy way Max and Rose had, but it felt wrong on her face. “Oh, nothing happened. I was just . . . home by myself! That’s all!”

Kim laughed, and Max observed, “Marinette, you can’t try to deflect _and then_ claim there’s nothing to tell.”

“Come on, spill,” Alix prodded. “We all did.”

Marinette tried to shrink as small as she could, but the weight of her classmates’ eyes on her only got heavier. Alya patted her knee under the desk and whispered, “It’s all right, girl. We’re all in this together.”

Marinette had caught the end of Alix and Nathaniel’s argument and had seen them making up through the door, so she felt like there was at least some truth to what Alya told her. With her eyes on her desk and her voice only barely loud enough that she wouldn’t have to repeat herself, she said, “It was Adrien.”

A chorus of shocked gasps and exclamations answered her, and in front of her, Adrien’s whole body visibly flinched.

“That’s ridiculous!” Chloe blurted. “In your dreams, Dupain-Cheng. Adrikins barely gets to leave the house. How dare you try to slander him like that!”

“Chloe,” Adrien interrupted, still not looking up from his desk. “It’s true. She and Alya and Nino were at my house yesterday when . . . when it happened.”

For a second, everyone was quiet in that solemn way people are at funerals. Then Mylène said, “Oh, Marinette,” with enough sympathy and sorrow that Marinette knew that she understood how devastating this was for her. The next moment, Rose ran around the room to give Marinette a hug. Alya joined in from Marinette’s other side, and the two girls held her as fresh tears tried to push their way through her clenched eyelids. After a few moments, she collected herself enough to pull out of the hug and risk a look around the room.

Most of the boys wore expressions of extreme discomfort and/or confusion. Most of the girls, who knew about her crush on Adrien and—unlike Tikki and Cat Noir—immediately understood that this development was a bad thing, echoed Rose’s sympathy in their expressions, and Marinette had a feeling they’d all have dog-piled on her in a group hug if the males had been out of the room.

Chloe, of course, was fuming, her face twisted in rage and disbelief, though at least she kept her mouth shut. Beside her, Sabrina kept shifting between showing sympathy for Marinette and showing solidarity with Chloe by forcing a scowl.

When Marinette risked looking at the boys at the desk in front of her, she saw Nino turned toward her with understanding and pain in his eyes, the hand closest to her twitching like he kept wanting to reach out in comfort but wasn’t sure it would be welcome.

And Adrien . . .

Adrien . . . was finally looking at her. Barely. His head turned enough to the left to peek at her over his shoulder. His eyes were tight as if he were in pain. As soon as he saw her looking at him, he faced forward again.

It occurred to her that a girl bursting into tears and needing immediate comfort and sympathy was probably not the best reaction a boy could want from a reminder of what had happened between them.

“Adrien,” Marinette croaked, wanting to explain herself, wanting to clarify why she was upset, but she couldn’t seem to find the right words. The verbal mush she often spewed around him had turned into a complete shut-off of the pipeline.

“It’s okay, Marinette,” he said softly, his back still to her. “I understand.”

He didn’t. Not at all. But how could she explain it without confessing her love? And if she did that, he might think she’d let it happen on purpose.

The level of discomfort in the room’s atmosphere reached maximum, and something had to be done to bring it down. Which was probably why Kim loudly said, “So, I guess that’s all of us. I’d say Adrien and Marinette win most surprising hook up, but I think Alix and Nathaniel have them beat for style.”

Alya put her hand over her face and groaned in annoyance. Nino nailed Kim in the forehead with a pencil.

“Ow,” Kim said, rubbing his forehead. “What was that for?”

“Hook up?” Alix said. “Not sure that’s the best term here.”

Alya sarcastically offered, “How about ‘surprise non-consensual hook up’?”

“That kinda sounds like a fancy euphemism for rape, to be honest,” Mylène said.

“It kinda is a fancy euphemism for rape, to be honest.” Alya acknowledged. “But ‘rape’ implies one of the two parties involved is at fault, whereas what happened here was that neither party wanted it but both parties actively worked to make it happen.”

Marinette physically shied away from the statement. Since Alya and Nino hadn’t been exactly conscious during their own . . . event . . . that meant that the reference Alya was thinking of for how _actively_ both parties worked to make it happen could only be Marinette and Adrien. Even beginning to imagine what her best friend had seen made Marinette want to throw up.

Kim stood and threw his arms out wide. “Congratulations, everyone! We invented a new kind of sex!”

Several people groaned, and Nino chucked headphones at Kim’s face.

“Pretty sure that was Hawk Moth, actually,” Nathaniel said in a dark tone.

His words—his very _true_ words—made a black cloud settle over everyone. For a minute there, it was as if they’d all been able to pretend it had been some tragic natural disaster. Like an earthquake setting off a gas leak. No one to blame. All you could do was pick yourself up and try to move on. But the gas hadn’t been natural or accidental. It had been a deliberate weapon aimed at them by a villain so bent on his own mysterious purpose that he didn’t care how badly he hurt anyone else. And somehow that was a lot harder to just move on from.

All the fire had gone from Alix’s voice when she said, “Kinda wish this hadn’t been the one time Ladybug and Cat Noir dropped the ball.”

A feeling like ice settled deep inside Marinette’s chest and spread through her whole body. She _had_ dropped the ball. She’d failed. Her friends had been hurt.

“It . . . _was_ kind of strange.” Alya sounded reluctant to criticize her hero, but she had every right to do it.

“They’re only human,” Nino told her. “I . . . guess they’re bound to make mistakes sometimes.”

Except they weren’t supposed to. They were superheroes, the only line of defense standing between Parisians and Hawk Moth. And yesterday . . . they didn’t.

“Don’t make excuses for them, Nino.” Marinette was surprised to hear her own cold voice. “They failed. Everyone suffered. Not even the magic ladybugs could fix it.”

No one else tried to come to the heroes’ defense. Not even ‘Ladybug’s biggest fan’ Chloe.

“I am glad she tried, though,” Nathaniel said. He looked up from his sketch pad and jerked in surprise to find most of the class looking at him, but he was the only one carrying the conversation past the uncomfortably true accusations, so of course they were looking at him. “The Louvre . . . really was a mess. It was worse than all those times the Eiffel Tower gets knocked over. I don’t know how many masterpieces were destroyed. The ladybugs fixed it all.” His expression and voice firmed with conviction. “So it’s not like she didn’t do anything!”

The cold feeling in Marinette’s chest thawed a little. She would rather save people than art, but saving art wasn’t nothing. It was at least good to know that it had been worth trying to clean up.

No one said anything more for ten solid seconds, so Miss Bustier cleared her throat softly and said, “All right. It sounds like everyone’s gotten out everything they needed to, so we can try to get class started. If any of you need to excuse yourself during class, go on ahead. You don’t need to ask. And if anyone wants to talk through anything—alone or . . . with a friend—I’m not a psychologist, but I’m happy to help if you want me to.”

But before she could actually start class, Mylène raised her hand. “Miss Bustier, were you caught in the gas with someone?”

The teacher’s smile faltered the tiniest bit in surprise. She straightened and folded her hands in front of her. “Yes. I was.”

Marinette had not even considered, through this whole conversation, that their teacher might have been affected too. Even though she knew the problem was widespread—that Ladybug had failed a whole lot of people—there were so many individuals that she hadn’t yet recognized as being part of that potential group.

“But you’re an adult, so it’s different, right?” Chloe said. “It probably wasn’t”—a completely uncharacteristic vulnerability crept into her tone—“your first time.”

Miss Bustier gave them an ‘everything’s all right’ smile that not even a little kid would have believed and shrugged slightly. “Actually, it was. But as you say, I’m an adult, so some things are different. On the other hand . . . some things aren’t so different.”


	6. Chapter 6

Adrien’s stomach felt like he had swallowed burning magma. He tried to sit still as Miss Bustier got class started, but every minute that passed, he felt worse.

The confirmation that Marinette now hated his guts was awful, but it wasn’t surprising. The fact that her reaction to him hadn’t changed at all since yesterday proved that she was still badly traumatized and probably wouldn’t get over it as Plagg had claimed. She was a nice enough person that Adrien could tell she felt bad about hating him, but just now when she’d tried to tell him that she didn’t, she couldn’t make herself lie about it, and her silence told Adrien all he really needed to know about her feelings.

What he hadn’t expected was how all the other girls in the class apparently thought that Adrien was some kind of horrible monster inflicted upon her. That part really took him by surprise. From the way all the girls reacted, anyone would think Marinette had said Mr. Damocles’s name instead of his. He’d thought all the girls were his friends, to one degree or another, but their reaction to the news made him wonder if they all secretly hated him and were only nice to him because it was in their nature to be nice to friendless losers. Chloe had been the only one to come to his defense, in her own Chloe-like way. Even Nino had come close to trying to comfort Marinette; Adrien had seen that out of the corner of his eye. But then, Nino had been there. He’d seen whatever it was Adrien had done to her. Was what he’d done . . . not normal? Was it even worse than he thought? Was that why she’d bled so much? Maybe, despite trying to reassure him earlier, Nino thought Adrien was some kind of monster, too.

But the worst part—the real nail in his coffin—was finding out that Marinette hated Cat Noir as well now. And the way the rest of the class made no attempt to disagree with her. Even Nathaniel’s words about fixing the Louvre had only applied to Ladybug herself. No one had spoken up in defense of Cat Noir—not that they had any reason to, since he really hadn’t done anything to help at all.

Adrien was only able to sit still for five minutes before grabbing his bag and rushing out of class, not stopping until he reached the safety of the bathroom. He made a quick check that he was alone, then let out a loud sigh and braced his hands against a sink so he wouldn’t collapse to the floor.

Plagg floated beside him. “Well, that was lively.”

“She hates me, Plagg,” Adrien said hopelessly. “She doesn’t just hate me, she hates Cat Noir, too. She hates _all_ of me.”

“Yeah, she really tore into you, kid. Which is only fair, after how you tore into—”

“Plagg!” Adrien groaned and banged his forehead against the mirror. “You’re supposed to be my friend. Why are you treating this like a joke?” He was getting a good idea why Nathaniel had snapped at Alix like he did.

“Because from where I’m standing, it’s kinda funny.”

“From where you’re standing? Is it a kwami thing?”

“You could say that.”

To be fair, if Adrien were a non-human being thousands of years old, it might seem trivial to him, too. Even his father and Nathalie hadn’t seemed nearly as bothered about it as he was. Adrien wouldn’t have even known the gas had affected them if Gabriel hadn’t hinted at as much last night in a surprising attempt to make Adrien feel better.

Adrien let out another, smaller groan. “Could you at least try to keep your jokes to yourself?”

“But they’re not nearly as funny if—”

Adrien shot him a glare.

“All right, all right. But only because I love you, kid.”

Adrien wondered if Ladybug’s kwami showed her love by occasionally refraining from mocking her pain.

He stayed in the bathroom for ten minutes, trying to work up the nerve to go back to class. A class full of people who he’d really thought were his friends, but who he now knew at worst hated him and at best didn’t think he was worth defending, supporting, or sympathizing with.

In the end, he pulled out his cell phone. Nathalie picked up on the first ring.

“Can you send the car for me?” he asked her, the sound of his own voice so depressing it only made him more depressed. “I’d like to go home.”

#

The next morning, Adrien woke at his usual time, went into his bathroom to attend to the usual morning necessities, and then crawled back into bed, pulled the covers like a cowl over his head, and curled up in a fetal position.

Ever since he’d come home yesterday, he’d spent a lot of time thinking about his life and what an absolute sham it all was. Over this past year or so, he’d really thought he’d started to make friends. But he’d had so little interaction with kids his age when he was little, he must have failed to learn the difference between genuine friendship and people just being nice.

He thought of the other people in his life. Of his bodyguard and Nathalie, who sometimes showed what he thought were hints of caring about him, but they were literally paid to take care of him. It wasn’t as if either of them would have any reason to care about him if not for that.

He thought of his fame and his fans. Fame which came only because his father had forced him into a certain role since before Adrien could even remember, which only existed because his father continued to force people to pay attention to him. Whether they wanted it or not. Surely it annoyed people to see the same idiotic image of the same stupid boy plastered all around Paris. It had never occurred to Adrien before to be embarrassed about it, since that kind of thing was normal in the messed-up life his father had given him. Maybe the media paid attention to him not because anyone actually liked him but only because he was famous. And sure, he had fans, but what did any of them even know about him? They didn’t like him for him. Even if they did like him, it could only be for how he looked, which meant Felix could take over his job and no one would even know the difference.

And there was Chloe, his oldest friend. His only friend for a long time. But only because their parents had made them play with each other. Only because they were the only kids their age each other had known. Did that sort of thing even qualify as friendship?

Adrien knew his mom had loved him. She’d known him and cared about him. But she wasn’t here, and he’d long since accepted she’d probably never come back.

And then there was his father, who obviously didn’t care about him in the slightest but at least was upfront about that fact. At least he didn’t pretend and make Adrien think he had something he didn’t.

Although there were moments . . . Maybe his father did have a little bit of love for Adrien. Maybe Adrien was somewhere on the list of things his father cared about, even if his ranking was in the double-digits.

The sound of his door opening jolted Adrien out of his thoughts. He heard the soft tapping of Nathalie’s heels as she came around and stood near his bed, looking down at him. He didn’t try to feign sleep but met her eyes without taking his head off the pillow.

“Are you going to school today?” she asked as if she didn’t care about the answer.

“No.”

“Very well.” She made a note on her tablet. “You have your fencing lesson this afternoon and then a photoshoot.” She looked at him, and they stared at each other for five seconds before she went back to her tablet. “I suppose you could skip one lesson, and I can reschedule the shoot.”

Adrien didn’t bother responding.

Nathalie didn’t leave. She stood there looking down at him for a long time. Eventually, she startled Adrien by sitting on the edge of his bed. She sat primly, not turning to look at him, so he stared off into space.

Finally, she spoke. “I have a theory that the hymen exists to dissuade humans from having intercourse before the ideal age of parenthood.”

Adrien’s eyes widened. What. On earth. Was she doing?

She kept going. “In most women, it wears away or gets broken naturally by the time the woman is in her early twenties or so, assuming no intercourse or similar activities have taken place.”

Adrien was stunned speechless as he tried to process what was going on.

“One would think that humanity would take this as an indicator of when sexual behavior was meant to begin, regardless of the hormonal imbalance of puberty or when a girl was first technically able to bear children. Perhaps if the pain of penetration were on the male’s part, humanity would have accepted this indicator for what it is instead of perpetuating the idea that it’s perfectly normal and expected for a female to experience pain and bleeding the first time she has intercourse.”

The surprise had passed, and Adrien was beginning to understand what she was working her way around to. He thought. Maybe. Nathalie was a perplexing woman sometimes.

She paused and fidgeted slightly with the tablet in her hands. “What I mean, Adrien, is that it’s not your fault that Marinette bled like she did. For a girl her age, it was an entirely predictable outcome, just like you might bleed if you were punched in the nose.”

Adrien clenched his eyes shut and groaned internally, sure now that his father had sent her in here to check on him and she’d taken that to mean she should try cheering him up. “Nathalie, I know you’re trying to help, but please go away.”

She hesitated, then stood and began walking to the door.

“Nathalie,” Adrien said suddenly, sitting up to watch her reaction. She stopped, and he asked her, “Do you hate Father, after what happened?”

“Of course not, Adrien.”

“Why not?”

She opened and closed her mouth a few times, but couldn’t seem to find a response.

So Adrien asked, “Do you love him?” It was something he’d been wondering for a while now.

For a brief moment he could see her surprise, but then she gave him a polite, professional smile and said, “Don’t be silly, Adrien.”

_That’s a yes_ , he thought.

After Nathalie left, Adrien flopped back down onto his pillow.

Maybe that was it. If Nathalie loved Gabriel, maybe that was why she didn’t hate him for what happened. Maybe that was why Alya and Nino had made up so fast. Adrien was pretty sure neither Alix nor Nathaniel were in love with the other, but they were friends, and that was a kind of love. When it was real.

But Marinette didn’t love him. Not romantically, and apparently not even as a friend. Maybe that was why she wasn’t able to get past the fear and pain and disgust which all got rolled together into a big lump of hate even if she didn’t want it to because she was an inherently nice person.

Adrien went back to considering the rest of the significant people in his life and how they might really feel about him, but there were only two left.

There was Plagg, who did love Adrien in his own way. But how many other holders of his Miraculous had he loved the same? Was Adrien special? Was Adrien someone who Plagg would even remember in a thousand years? It seemed unlikely.

And then there was Ladybug. _My_ _l_ _ady._ Adrien snorted in disgust at himself. She wasn’t _his_ anything. He had no claim on her. She didn’t want to _give_ him any claim on her. She’d made that perfectly clear over and over, and yet he kept making unwanted advances. Which doubtless annoyed her and made her uncomfortable. When she was just trying to do her job and save the city.

_I am human trash_ , he thought.

He didn’t deserve to be Cat Noir. He didn’t deserve to be Ladybug’s partner. He was just an obnoxious, unlovable, friendless boy with an overbearing father who kept pushing him onto people whether they wanted him or not.

What was even the point of Adrien Agreste?

#

Gabriel stood at his workstation, trying to finish a design, but it was difficult to concentrate with the strong negative emotions he sensed from his son.

The tap of heels preceded Nathalie’s entrance. “He plans to stay home today,” she told him.

He nodded, having guessed as much. Given the severity of what Adrien had experienced, Gabriel would allow him to wallow for another day or two if he wanted. And if Adrien decided to give up public school altogether, so much the better.

Gabriel regretted the Fairy Grandmother debacle. It had been a huge blunder—one with serious and permanent consequences for himself and his family, and he would face those consequences with due consideration and responsibility. But he was not a man to let a single setback, no matter how significant, distract him from his goal. The fact of the matter had not changed: Emilie needed him. He would not fail her.

And his blunder had left a great many people in fragile and volatile emotional states.

Gabriel Agreste would not be the man he was today if he didn’t know how to turn a setback to his advantage.

Without pausing in his work, he asked, “Do I have any meetings scheduled around lunch time?”

She checked her tablet. “No, sir.”

It still grated on his ears to hear her call him that now, but he let it go. “Good.”

Nathalie had a very quick brain and picked up on his intention immediately. “Will you want help?”

“No.” He considered, then added for clarification, “I will not be requiring Mayura’s assistance for a while, Nathalie.”

“I understand, sir.”

He raised his eyes from his workstation to look at her. “Do you?”

She met his gaze: Level. Unblinking. “Yes, sir.”

Of course she did. Quick brain. It was why he’d hired her.


	7. Chapter 7

“Adrien, wake up!” Plagg shouted as he slammed his body into Adrien’s nose.

Adrien bolted upright. “I’m up! What is it?”

For one blissful second, Adrien wondered what he was doing in bed when the angle of the sunlight coming through his windows said it was mid-day.

Then he remembered.

Plagg pointed at the TV, which Adrien was sure he hadn’t left on. Plagg must have turned it on to amuse himself while Adrien exhausted himself crying.

_With friends like these . . ._ Adrien thought dejectedly as he hauled himself out of bed and over to the TV.

It was live coverage of an akumatized supervillain turning buildings into giant sponges.

“Plagg, claws out.” Maybe he didn’t deserve to be Cat Noir, but it didn’t matter right now what he deserved or what should be. He was the one with the Miraculous. He had a job to do. And he didn’t want to fail everyone again.

#

At least the akuma attack happened at lunch. Marinette was already home, had already eaten her lunch, and was in her room trying to get a bit of work done on a design project when she saw the alert. So she was able to respond immediately and made it to the supervillain less than five minutes after the attack started.

The villain called himself Spongify, and his thing was using a dish sponge wand to shoot beams which turned anything it touched into sponge. Ladybug sat on a rooftop and watched long enough to satisfy herself that this was his only power.

“Should be easy to handle,” Cat Noir said, appearing beside her.

“I bet the akuma is in his dish wand,” she said.

He concurred with a silent nod.

The fight was fast and easy. It took less than two minutes, and neither of them even had to use their special power. So Ladybug was a bit surprised when, once it was all over, Cat Noir tried to leave right away.

“Cat Noir, wait,” she called, and he came back to the rooftop where she was standing.

“What is it, Ladybug?” he asked. There was something weird about the way he was acting. Subdued and stoic. Even though the fight was short, he hadn’t quipped or taunted once. True, none of them were in their usual good moods lately, but something about him seemed even worse than the last time she’d seen him, immediately after Fairy Grandmother’s attack.

“Did something seem off about that fight to you?” she asked him.

He thought about it, his demeanor totally serious. “It was the easiest one we’ve seen in a while. Like Hawk Moth was handling us all with kid gloves.”

Ladybug nodded. “Yeah. I wonder . . . I wonder if he realizes he went too far with the last one and so pulled way back. Like he’s afraid of going overboard again.”

It was hard to tell with his mask, but Cat Noir seemed to be scowling. “If he did realize he went too far, he should have stopped altogether. The fact that he’s still akumatizing people at all means he hasn’t really learned any lesson, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

She let out a small sigh. “I was kind of hoping. But you’re right. If he had learned anything, he would have stopped. Still, maybe we’ll at least get some easy ones for a while. I know I wouldn’t mind the break.”

Cat Noir stared at the tiles near his feet. “Ladybug, I . . . I want to apologize.”

“For what?”

“For all the flirting. For not taking no for an answer. I’m sorry. I know your job’s hard enough without me making it worse.”

Normally, it would have been nice to hear that. If it hadn’t been said in such a despondent way and accompanied by the absence of nearly all of Cat Noir’s personality. “Kitty . . . I appreciate that. Thank you. But you can still be yourself without flirting, you know. I really don’t mind the puns and the jokes.”

“Noted, Mi—Ladybug. But I’m not feeling in a very joking mood.”

She didn’t either, but she was beginning to get worried about him. He still wasn’t looking at her. “What’s wrong, Cat Noir? Did something happen?”

Finally, his green eyes met hers. “Do you really care?”

She moved closer to him. “Of course I care! You’re my partner.”

He looked away. “Only by accident. You didn’t choose me.”

“Maybe not, but Master Fu did.”

“He chose me because I helped a random old man on the street get up when he fell. Right place, right time. Anyone would have done it.”

She put her hands on his shoulders. “Not anyone, Cat Noir. That’s the point. Small actions reveal big things about a person’s character.”

“ _A lot_ of other people would have done it, then. I’m not that special.”

Her worry for him was causing her to get annoyed with him. “News flash, Cat Noir. I’m not special either. I’m just some girl. Totally ordinary.”

His eyes snapped to hers. “Ladybug, no! You’re amazing! Everyone in Paris knows it!”

“Ladybug may be amazing, but me”—she laid a hand on her chest—“the girl underneath, I’m not special. If my identity ever got out, everyone would be incredibly disappointed about how anticlimactic the reveal was.”

His mouth quirked in a way that made Ladybug think he found her words ironic, but he didn’t say anything.

“We’re not Chosen Ones,” she said gently. “Well, we are, but not because of some prophecy or noble bloodline or anything like that. We were chosen because _someone_ needed to be Ladybug and Cat Noir, and we were in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing. Believe me, I’ve felt like I don’t deserve to be Ladybug more than once.” He opened his mouth like he wanted to argue, so she kept going before he could. “So I get it. I do. But we’re the ones who were picked. We can give up or we can do our best. Being Ladybug means a lot to me, so I don’t want to give up. Do you?”

Cat Noir chewed on his lip for a second before saying, “No. I really don’t.”

This conversation wasn’t over yet, so she thought it might be better to get more comfortable. She sat down on the tile roof, pulling her partner down beside her. “You’re my partner, Cat Noir. We didn’t choose each other, but we’ve got each other. And I wouldn’t want to trade you for anyone.” She seriously wondered whether she should say what she wanted to say next, but when she saw how the stoic, professional look in his eyes had turned into a deep, deep sadness, she knew she had to. “Cat Noir, you need to know something. And you need to know that I say this as your friend and your partner—and only as that. Okay?”

There was fear in his eyes as he nodded. As if he thought she was leading up to something horrible. Even after everything else she’d just said?

She laid her hand on his where it rested against the roof tiles. “I love you.”

Ladybug only caught a glimpse of the tears spilling out over his mask before he threw his arms around her and crushed her against himself, burying his face in her neck as he let out pained whimpers and tiny sobs.

The feeling of a boy’s arms around her—of his body pressed so close to hers—sent a shock of panic through her, a split-second of memory flashing through her mind. But she retained the mental fortitude to resist the urge to shove him away on instinct, and she was able to register her partner’s tears and painful need for comfort.

The panic passed, and she wrapped her arms around him, stroking his back gently. “It’s okay, Kitty. I love you.” Somehow, his grip around her got even tighter.

He hugged her for a long time, and she stroked his back and murmured soothing sounds.

After several minutes, his grip on her loosened. “Thank you, Ladybug. You have no idea how much I needed to hear that.”

She smiled and didn’t point out how wet her shoulder was. “I have _some_ idea.”

He pulled back, wiping his eyes, but he was smiling.

“And I may not be your girlfriend, but I am your partner. And if you want to equate ‘partner’ to ‘lady’ ”—she shrugged—“I won’t stop you.”

His smile got wider, and some of the playful light came back into his eyes. “You’re saying you don’t mind if I call you my lady?”

She tweaked his bell. “I can be your lady as long as you can still be my kitty.” To be honest, it had been downright weird when he’d forced himself to stop from calling her ‘Milady’. She could live without ‘Bugaboo’, but she kind of liked ‘Milady’. “Now will you tell me what happened?”

His smile fell, and he let out a hard breath as he shifted his position to face forward with his feet planted and forearms resting on his bent knees. “It was something at school. This girl in my class . . . Well, she’s not just a girl in my class. She’s the girl . . . the girl I was with when the gas . . .”

“Oh.”

“She didn’t know I was sitting there—that I’m _me_ , you know—but she . . . she made it pretty clear how much she blames us—blames me—for not stopping Fairy Grandmother. In no uncertain terms. And the rest of the class pretty much agreed with her.”

Ladybug fought down her righteous fury at this mystery girl who’d hurt her partner. How dare she blame him? She _had_ to know Cat Noir had surely tried his best. She _had_ to know Hawk Moth was the one to blame. But getting angry on his behalf didn’t seem to be what would help Cat Noir right at the moment.

“It’s not your fault, Cat Noir,” she said. “If anything, it’s mine. You couldn’t have stopped Fairy Grandmother by yourself. If you had gotten to her and freed the akuma, it would have only multiplied and spread the problem exponentially because I wasn’t there to purify it. I’m the one this girl should be angry at. Not you.”

“No, Ladybug! I’m—I’m your partner! If there is any blame, I deserve my share of it.”

Ladybug recalled some of the posts she’d seen on the internet, some of the comments by morning news hosts and tweets from influential Parisians, and her own thoughts. “There is blame, Cat Noir. There’s plenty of blame. But . . . I think a lot of it might just be from fear and pain. Fear because we, the heroes, failed to protect them, when they’d always believed we’d be there to do that. Like I promised them we would. So now they’re not sure what else we won’t be able to protect them from. And since Hawk Moth is hidden and we’re not, we’re the easier target for their blame.”

“That makes sense,” Cat Noir said. “It just . . . hurts. Knowing she hates me. She already couldn’t talk to me after what happened. Then she said that. So, it hurts to know that she hates both sides of me.”

Not being able to talk to the other person after what had happened was something that Ladybug knew all about, but it wasn’t wise to share too many things about their personal lives. Even this conversation was probably unwise, except it seemed like he really needed it. “She’s probably only angry or scared or both,” Ladybug said. “She may not really hate you.”

He perked up at that. “Do you really think so?”

“Hate is a strong emotion, and for most people, it takes a lot to get there. Is she overall a decent person?”

He nodded vigorously. “She’s great. She’s super nice. She’s—”

Ladybug held up a hand. “Hold the details, Cat Noir. I don’t want to know too much about your personal life or the people you know.”

His dejection was momentary, then he reiterated, “She’s a really good person, yeah.”

“Then she probably doesn’t hate easily. Maybe give her some time. Then you can try to find out if she still hates you. Without telling her you’re you, of course. On second thought, that could be really tricky to do without risking her finding out your identity. Maybe you should try to focus on patching things up with her as the you that she knows first.”

He chuckled. “You make it sound so complicated.”

Before they parted ways, he gave her another crushing hug.

“Are you all right now?” she asked.

“I think so. Better, anyway.” He squeezed her a little tighter. “Thank you, Milady.” When he pulled away, she could see his impulse to say or do something flirty . . . but it passed, and he only smiled and gave her a wave before bounding away.


	8. Chapter 8

Cat Noir hoped Ladybug was right about Marinette not really hating him. She was probably right about how he should sort things out with Marinette as Adrien before he worried about how she felt about Cat Noir. But the thing between Adrien and Marinette was too big. Too embarrassing. Too horrifying. He didn’t know how to even begin trying to work past it with her, especially when she couldn’t stand to talk to him. Answering the question of whether or not she really hated Cat Noir was a much easier and more straightforward problem. Especially since, for whatever reason, she’d never acted as anxious around Cat Noir as she usually was around Adrien.

He stayed home from school again and spent all afternoon thinking of possible ways to get a straight answer regarding how Marinette felt about Cat Noir. The problem was, any approach that he took as Adrien would seem totally random and could lead people to looking into possible connections between Adrien and Cat Noir, and this problem wasn’t worth risking exposing his identity over.

In the end, there was really only one way to do it. Maybe he should have given her more time for her feelings to settle down, but now that there was doubt in his mind—now that there was any hope at all that she didn’t hate Cat Noir, at least—he had to know as soon as possible.

He waited for night to fall and watched through her portal window until he saw her in her room, sitting at her computer. Then Cat Noir dropped down onto her rooftop patio and relaxed into her lounge chair.

As he expected, he immediately heard her moving around, climbing up to her trap door. He tried to relax, forcing himself into a casual position with his hands behind his head, but his heart was racing. If she hated him, she would scowl and try to make him go away, possibly even demand an explanation for why he hadn’t stopped Fairy Grandmother.

But as he saw her climb through the trap door, saw the outline of her body in the moonlight, a different problem presented itself. Even though he couldn’t actually remember most of what they’d done together, the memories of those brief moments before they were pulled apart were still seared into him. Her spaghetti-strap tank top left her shoulders bare, and he remembered the warmth of her skin. The way her shoulder blades moved under her skin as she crawled out of the hatch briefly mesmerized him.

His face heated. Other parts of his body seemed to be heating up, too. He swallowed hard, suddenly not sure he could do this. She hadn’t spotted him yet. Maybe he could get away.

But even as he thought it, she turned and looked down at him. “Cat Noir?”

He had prepared some sort of casual, witty remark to explain his presence. He knew he had. But what was it?

Cat Noir sprang up into a cross-legged sitting position with his hands grasping his ankles. “Oh, hi, Marinette.” It was not the witty remark he was hoping for. It was actually pretty inane, since it sounded like he was surprised to see her even though this was her roof and he obviously knew that.

But she didn’t scowl at him. She only raised an eyebrow and put her hands on her hips.

Soft, slender hips.

_Don’t look at her hips._

But he could practically feel their heat under his palms.

_Stop it. Stop it!_

He had never once looked at Marinette this way. Never thought those things about her. Not about any girl, actually. He hadn’t known enough to. But now he did, and he hated it.

“Cat Noir?” she repeated. “Why are you here? There wasn’t an akuma, was there?”

He focused on her face—which wasn’t scowling or wide-eyed with fear. She looked normal. A little confused, which was understandable, but normal.

He smiled. “Not tonight. I was just out for a stroll and thought I’d stop here to relax a little. I didn’t mean to disturb you.” There. That was normal. That was plausible.

She leaned against the railing, which made a whole new outline of her body, but it was a little easier to ignore it this time and stay focused on her face.

Maybe that was how he’d get past this. Exposure therapy. Maybe he just needed to be around her more, and his brain would overwrite that other encounter with fresher and less troubling images (and sensations).

“You aren’t disturbing me,” she said. “I was just toodling around on the internet.”

“Oh?” he asked. “What are they saying?”

She raised an eyebrow. “The entire internet?”

Even though she didn’t seem mad at him, he wanted to find a way to make her put it into words. But he couldn’t come right out and tell her he’d heard she blamed him and was checking to see if it was true. If he went that far, she might just put it together and figure him out. “I haven’t read the comments today.” That was true. “But the last I saw, it seemed like . . . some people were mad at Ladybug and me for not stopping Fairy Grandmother the other day.”

Sympathy washed over her face, and he became certain that Ladybug had been right. “Some people blame you, but . . . but I don’t think they will for long. I think they’ll remember that you two do so much for the city already, and it’s not fair to expect you to be perfect.”

There was an opening here. He could ask if _she_ blamed him at all. But as he was trying to work through whether that would sound like he had too specific an interest, she walked over to him and ruffled his hair. He flinched in surprise and instantly tried to hide it. _Cat Noir_ had no reason to react strangely to Marinette’s touch, and he couldn’t afford to raise her suspicion. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to notice.

“I know I for one don’t blame you, Cat Noir,” she said. “And I don’t think my friends do, either.”

He looked up at her hopefully. “You don’t?”

“At first we were hurt, and we were all feeling a lot of different things. We still are. But I think we all know that Hawk Moth is the only one we should be pointing our anger at.”

A huge weight lifted from Cat Noir’s heart. So huge, he was sure he could physically feel it. He took in a deep breath of night air, not warm but not quite cool. “Thank you, Marinette. That makes me feel a lot better.”

“I’m glad I could help, Cat Noir. But I should probably get back inside. I have some homework to finish.”

He hopped up and bowed to her. “Then I shall resume my evening constitutional and bid you good night.”

That actually got a little giggle out of her. “Good night, Cat Noir,” she said as she dropped down to her room.

He cherished the sound of her laugh, willing it to overwrite the memory of her horrified gasp. Or her shocked whisper of his name. Or her sobs.

He was going to need a lot more of her laughter in his ears, and the sooner the better. Too bad he had no idea when he’d get to hear any of it as Adrien. But the fact that she could smile and laugh and encourage someone else at all was a good sign. It meant she wasn’t that badly traumatized all the time, only when she was around him.

As he bounded across the rooftops toward home, Cat Noir decided to be a coward. It was hard enough to see Marinette when he was safe behind a mask and she didn’t know who she was really talking to. Actually facing her as himself, actually acknowledging to each other (if only by their mutual awkwardness) what they had done, actually putting their feelings about it into words . . . It was all too terrifying to contemplate. But if he could work out his side of the discomfort by visiting her as Cat Noir, then maybe that exposure therapy thing would work and he’d eventually be able to face her again as Adrien.

It wasn’t fair to her; he knew that. If he waited to face her until he’d worked through his own issues (or some of them, anyway), that meant putting off allowing her to work through hers. He didn’t really want to do that to her; he just couldn’t see any other viable option.

#

“Looks like talking to you earlier really perked him up,” Tikki said in her adorable, cheerful voice as Marinette pulled out some homework from her bag.

“I’m really glad. Before, he looked . . . so awful. Like he had no one in the world. I wonder if he really was just passing through, or if he intentionally came to talk to me.”

Tikki floated over to sit on her desk, right near the book Marinette had laid out. “Why would he do that?”

Marinette twirled her pencil between her fingers. “We’re . . . sort of friends, I guess.” Distant friends who didn’t see each other very often, but after some of the stuff she’d been through with him as Marinette, she did feel like they were more than acquaintances. “Weird as that is. I feel kinda bad about it, like I’m tricking him. But from the way he broke down earlier, I guess maybe he doesn’t have that many people to talk to, and maybe he wanted to get a regular person’s opinion on how much everyone blames him.”

“You think he didn’t believe you when it was Ladybug telling him?”

“Trust but verify?” Marinette guessed. “It’s understandable. I’m one of the people being blamed along with him, and it really is more my fault than his, so I’m hardly impartial.”

Tikki gave her a mock-accusing look.

“But he doesn’t need to know that!” she defended. “I mean, when I, Marinette, told him people don’t really blame him, he doesn’t need to know it’s still Ladybug, co-blame-getter, that’s telling him. Not if it makes him feel better.”

Tikki laughed. “You’re right, Marinette. And I think you did the right thing. He looked even better leaving here just now than he did when he came.”

Marinette sighed and tapped her pencil on her book, trying to figure out which math problems she was supposed to work on. “I’m glad I have him, Tikki. Especially now, when things are so weird with my other friends. Not to mention Adrien.” Just the thought of him made her groan and drop her head onto her book. “I really screwed up, Tikki. He never came back to school yesterday, _and_ he wasn’t there today. I think he’s avoiding me. I bet he never wants to see me again.”

Tikki laid what passed for her hand on Marinette’s forearm. “I don’t think it’s quite _that_ hopeless, Marinette.”

“It is, Tikki. It totally is. The worst part is, I don’t have any idea how to even _start_ fixing it.” Her head shot up. “And everyone keeps looking at me like I’m the one who has to bring him back to school! Nino and Alya won’t even text him because they say they can’t do anything to fix his problem since it’s between him and me. But it’s not like I can just go over to his house and say, ‘Hey Adrien, remember that time we had mind-controlled sex on your bedroom floor? No, neither do I, so let’s pretend it never happened. Oh, and by the way I’m in love with you; will you please be my boyfriend? Let’s go get ice cream and pretend I don’t know what your penis feels like as it slides out of me.’ ” Having made herself blush, Marinette hopelessly let her cheek fall onto her book.

Tikki pretended to consider the suggestion seriously. “Well, at least that would get it all out there in the open.”

Marinette took a deep, bracing breath and returned to her homework. Maybe one of these days she’d figure out a way to look Adrien in the eye again. For now, she had math.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's been some speculation in the comments about why Alya's parents weren't affected, and I realized I left out a detail that I'd known in my head but hadn't actually written into the story, so I made a small addition to Alya's mention of this in chapter 3 to clarify.


	9. Chapter 9

“All right, everyone, listen up!” Alya stood at the front of the class so she could block the doorway if necessary. School had just gotten out and everyone was eager to leave, but Alya had managed to bark them all back into their chairs. “Adrien hasn’t come back to school in three days, and I think it’s our fault.”

“What do you mean it’s our fault?” Ivan asked, offended.

Alya sighed and put a hand to her forehead. “You’re right, maybe not _all_ our faults. Most of you boys are too clueless to be at fault here.”

Now Ivan wasn’t the only boy looking offended.

“I hope you’re planning to explain that comment,” said Max.

“Okay, look,” said Alya. “I know Monday morning wasn’t easy for any of us. But no one else ran home and didn’t come back. Adrien did, so this was obviously harder on him for some reason. Does anyone want to take a stab at why?”

Rose raised her hand like Alya was the teacher and this was a normal class discussion. “Is it because of how we all supported Marinette?”

Alya nodded. “I think so.”

“But that was just because . . .” Rose trailed off, glancing at the boys in the room.

Alya sighed. “Yeah. But Adrien doesn’t know that.”

“Uh, Alya?” Kim asked. “I know I’m just a clueless boy and all, but are you gonna explain what you’re talking about?”

Alya cast a questioning look at Marinette. Marinette squirmed but nodded.

Nathaniel asked, “Has anyone talked to Adrien?” From the way he said it, Alya suspected that by ‘anyone’ he mostly meant ‘Marinette’.

But most of the glances went to Nino, who shook his head.

“Marinette needs to be the one to talk to him,” Alya said, which most of them probably already knew, including the girl herself. “The problem is, she can’t.”

“Why not?” Ivan asked.

Alya normally liked sharing news, but this one didn’t give her any pleasure. “Because she’s in love with him.”

Ivan, Max, Nathaniel, and Kim—the only ones in the classroom who hadn’t already known this fact—mostly just blinked stupidly, clueless boys that they were.

“Okay,” Kim said. “So . . . ?”

Alya shook her head. It looked like the rest of the girls were leaving it to her to explain this one. “So what happened on Sunday was huge. You all know that. Nino and I were able to work through it because he’s my boyfriend. We love each other. We’re on the same page. We knew where we were coming from and how to read each other. That meant we were able to talk through our feelings about it and work together to move past it rather than letting it tear us apart.” She pointed at Alix and Nathaniel. “You two are friends. You know each other and what your relationship is. That’s why you were comfortable expressing your feelings and getting things out there so they could be worked out. Right?” They didn’t look at all comfortable about the reminder, but they both nodded. “Adrien and Marinette don’t have that because Adrien doesn’t know that Marinette’s in love with him. He thinks she only sees him as a friend. So he doesn’t have the necessary information to read her responses correctly. So when she froze up and couldn’t talk to him, what do you think he saw?”

She could see them all working through it. None of them answered, which was fine, because it wasn’t like Alya knew exactly what Adrien was thinking either, only that it couldn’t be good.

But she kept prodding. “That’s why all the girls sympathized with her. Because we all knew what it really meant from her perspective.”

“What does it mean?” Max asked.

Alya didn’t really want to try to get into that part of it with them. Partly because she wasn’t the one having the feelings—Marinette was. And Marinette was staying really quiet through this whole discussion. “Just try to guess, Max. Haven’t you ever had a crush on anyone? Nathaniel, imagine it had been you and Marinette back when you had a crush on her.” He reddened, eyes widening in panic at the thought, and he shrunk a little in his seat. “I guarantee you, Kim, if this had happened before Ondine had confessed to you, she’d be acting weird like Marinette is.”

“She _is_ acting pretty weird.”

“Weirder, Kim. Even weirder.”

Ivan said, “Okay, but how is this our fault?”

Alya leaned against the desk at the front of the class. “Because while we girls were so busy sympathizing with Marinette, we didn’t pay any attention to how Adrien must have read our response. Not knowing about Marinette being in love with him, he probably wondered why we all acted so much more strongly about it than about everyone else’s revelations. He probably also wondered why no one was sympathizing with him, only with her.”

Chloe, who’d been sitting with her arms crossed, staring petulantly forward, finally spoke. “Well, _I_ certainly didn’t sympathize with her, so this isn’t my fault.”

“You’re right, Chloe,” Alya reluctantly admitted. “But I think it might take all of us together to fix it.”

“Shouldn’t Marinette just go talk to him?” Juleka asked.

“Should, yes,” Alya agreed. “But she can’t. For the same reason she couldn’t say anything to him on Monday. So she needs our help.” She looked to her best friend, who was slouching down in her seat as if trying to hide from everyone. “Right, girl?”

Marinette pulled herself together enough to sit straighter and look around the classroom. “Yes. Please. I-I know this is my fault—”

“It’s not your _fault_ , Marinette,” Alya cut her off. “It’s just a thing that happened.”

Marinette visibly fought to believe her. “But I don’t know how to fix it.”

“And at this point,” Alya added to the rest of the class, “I really do think all of us are involved, whether we meant to be or not. You know what Adrien’s life was like before he came to this school. He’s more sensitive than a lot of people when it comes to things like friendship.” She looked around and gauged how everyone was taking it before asking, “So, are we all in?”

Everyone nodded or verbalized their agreement. Even Chloe.

“Good. I hope no one has plans for this evening. And guys, I’m really gonna need to swear you all to secrecy about the Marinette-being-in-love-with-Adrien thing. That little detail is all hers, got it?”

#

“Why are you studying?” Plagg asked. “I thought you quit school.”

Adrien looked up from his history book. He wasn’t getting notes from anyone, so he hadn’t been able to catch up on assignments, but he could guess at what they were covering based on where they’d last been in the text. “I haven’t quit school, Plagg.”

“You didn’t go today, even though your whole ‘no one loves me’ crisis seems to be over.”

That was only slightly more sensitive than when his father had asked him this morning if he was done ‘moping’, but Adrien didn’t bother saying so. Plagg was who he was, and he certainly wasn’t going to change now. “I’ll . . . I’ll go back soon. As soon as I think I can handle having a conversation with Marinette.”

“You had one with her last night.”

“I mean as myself. Besides, I needed some decompression time today.” His father and Nathalie had both seemed to know that Adrien’s depression had passed when he saw them—shockingly—at breakfast, but neither did they argue when he said he wanted to stay home another day. Nathalie had even cleared his schedule for him again. Which had allowed him to spend all day out and about as Cat Noir, just enjoying the freedom and fresh air. It would have been nice to have had Ladybug with him for company, but even if he’d known how to contact her when she wasn’t transformed, he couldn’t very well have asked her to play hookie with him for no reason like that. Still, the day had been nice and had really helped him to regain his usual optimism.

He _would_ figure this thing with Marinette out. He knew it. But his plan would take a little time to work itself out.

Speaking of which . . . “Once I finish this up, I’m gonna go over to see her again.”

“What’s your excuse this time? Another stroll?” Plagg sounded dubious.

He had a point. If Cat Noir suddenly started visiting every night, Marinette might catch on that something was up. But wouldn’t it be kind of a big leap to guess that her new frequent visitor was the boy she couldn’t bring herself to speak to, working himself up to being able to speak to her? Maybe not. Marinette was pretty sharp.

“I’ll think of something,” Adrien said with a shrug.

When he finished studying and was getting ready to transform, someone knocked on his door.

“Come in,” he said, unsurprised to see Nathalie step just into the room.

She did surprise him, though, by saying, “You have visitors.”

Before he could ask anything, she left, and Nino and Alya came in.

A smile spread across Adrien’s face. He hadn’t let himself think too much about Nino and Alya and the rest of the class or why they’d reacted the way they had to Marinette’s confession on Monday. But he also hadn’t managed to get up the guts to text Nino either, afraid that maybe that was one thing he hadn’t read entirely wrong. Remembering that, a sudden trepidation settled into his stomach. Not all visits were good visits.

But Nino and Alya greeted him with happy smiles as they walked over to where Adrien was sitting at his desk.

“Dude, long time no see,” said Nino. “Since you’ve been out a couple days, I thought I should bring over your homework so you don’t get behind.”

Alya bumped Nino’s shoulder with her own. “And since my handwriting’s a lot more readable than his, I figured my notes would be more useful to you.”

Adrien realized he was tearing up and tried to blink the moisture away. “Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it.” He got up from the desk, and Nino immediately hugged him, thumping his back twice.

“You remember I told you you’re still my best bud, right?” Nino asked into his ear.

“Y-yeah.”

“Good.”

As soon as Nino released him, Alya came in to hug Adrien, too. It was quicker and not as firm, but it didn’t seem perfunctory either. And Adrien managed to only blush a little.

She leaned on the back of the couch. “The truth is, Monday morning was pretty crazy, _aaaand_ you haven’t been back since, so we wanted to make sure you were all right.”

The tears started coming back to Adrien’s eyes. So, he _had_ overthought things. “Thank you. Really. Nino, Alya—thanks. I’m so glad I have you guys as friends. My head did get kinda messed up after all that, but I’m doing better now. It really helps to see you guys. I-I know everything’s weird still, but I really want to get past it with you and . . . everyone.”

“We do too, Adrien,” Nino confirmed. “And we’re going to.”

“Buuut,” said Alya, “we’re not the only ones who wanted to make sure everything was all right with you.”

She and Nino looked to the still-open bedroom door, and Adrien’s heart thumped. It could only be Marinette, but he wasn’t ready to see her yet. Not without his mask. He needed more time to prepare.

Except it wasn’t Marinette. The next person through the door was Chloe, followed by Sabrina.

Adrien gaped in pleased surprise. “Chloe?”

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed his cheeks. The contact made him more uncomfortable than it usually did, but he was too happy to see her to really be bothered by it. “You know I love you, Adrikins. Even if all these other losers forget how great you are.”

Alya crossed her arms and said in a flat tone, “Chloe.”

Chloe didn’t apologize, only moved away from him, and Sabrina startled him by darting in to air-kiss his cheeks in greeting.

“Uh, thanks Chloe,” Adrien said, happy but not quite sure what was going on now. “And Sabrina. It’s nice to see you two.”

And then he heard more footsteps and saw Ivan and Mylène come in, and then Kim and Alix and Nathaniel and everyone else in his class (except for one). Each of his classmates came over in turn and greeted him with a hug and/or cheek kisses, most offering some words of friendly greeting or support. It was a little overwhelming. The fact that they would make the effort, that they would come all the way here and make a big show like this . . . like they suspected he thought they might hate him and wanted to make it clear they didn’t . . .

It was getting really, really hard to hold back his happy tears. “You guys . . . everyone . . . thanks for coming.” He glanced at the door nervously, hoping and fearing that Marinette would be next to come through it.

She didn’t.

He tried not to be too disappointed. So, maybe she still did hate him. This gave him more time to work on being comfortable around her. And then, when he did talk to her, he’d figure out how to make things right and normal with her again.

He turned away from the door and laughed to see that his classmates were already playing foosball and starting up a video game, and Nino was getting the music going. The boys had all been here for an impromptu party before, so they knew where everything was, and the girls were wasting no time in falling in with them.

Adrien was so happy his heart hurt, and he was sure he was really crying now. “How did you get Father to let you in?” he asked Alya and Chloe, who were still standing nearby.

Chloe flicked her wrist dismissively. “ _I_ was with them, so obviously he could see it was important.”

Adrien wasn’t so sure about that. Chloe herself could pretty much come and go as she wanted, but on a normal day, he doubted her word would be enough to convince his father to let their whole class come over for a surprise party. But Gabriel had been much more lenient and understanding than normal since the incident. Adrien knew it wouldn’t last long, but if it had allowed this surprise to happen, he was incredibly grateful.

Sabrina called Chloe over to try out the rock climbing wall with her, leaving Adrien standing quietly with Alya amid the sudden chaos.

“I guess . . . she didn’t . . .” Adrien really didn’t want to ask, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself. He glanced at Alya to see if she knew what he was trying to say or if he’d have to actually say it, only to see her looking past him and rolling her eyes. That was very strange. Except his back was to the door now, so maybe . . .

Slowly, Adrien turned to see Marinette peeking into his room, barely more than her face visible past the door frame. His eyes met hers as his pulse thundered in his ears even over the music, and she immediately disappeared.

“She’s . . . a little nervous,” Alya said in an ‘I can’t believe this girl’ tone. “But she really did want to come.”

“You didn’t drag her?” he asked.

“No, Adrien. I didn’t. You know how she can get. It’s just Marinette being Marinette but turned up to eleven.”

Adrien smiled through his nerves. So, Marinette didn’t hate him. She was just nervous, like he was. They could work through this.

Marinette was not coming back into the room.

“All right,” Adrien said, steeling himself. “I’ll go talk to her.”


	10. Chapter 10

When Adrien left his room, he didn’t see Marinette right away. She wasn’t on the landing outside his door nor on the lower landing in front of the portrait nor down on the main floor of the foyer.

Then he looked up and saw her peeking over the last stair to the interior balcony like a cat peeking over the edge of a box. Adrien smiled to himself and slowly took a few steps up the stairs toward her, trying not to spook her. Where was all that calm confidence she’d had last night? Why did it seem like Adrien was the only one who never got to see it? Not unless he was in disguise or watching from a distance, anyway.

He turned and sat down on the third step from the top. There was a lot of music still coming from the open door to his room, and it would probably be easier to talk if he took her into the library or something. But he didn’t want to start any rumors. That was something he had to think about now.

“Hi, Marinette,” he said, amazed at how steady his voice was. He’d sat facing away from her partly so she might feel more comfortable, but it also prevented him from getting distracted by her body and the unwelcome memories of it that his brain kept throwing at him.

“H-hi, Adrien.” Her voice was barely loud enough for him to hear over the music.

“Would you sit and talk with me? Please?”

Slowly, she shuffled to the top step and sat down. She was above him and all the way on the other side of the staircase, but it was close enough to talk.

Adrien heaved a sigh. “Do you want to talk about what happened or try to pretend it didn’t?”

She didn’t say anything for a while, probably trying to decide. “I _want_ to pretend it didn’t happen. But . . . I think maybe we _should_ talk about it.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. After a few more seconds of silence, he decided he might as well start. “I’m really sorry for hurting you. I . . . well, obviously I didn’t mean to. But I did, so I’m sorry. Are you . . . feeling better?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see her feet shuffling. “Yeah. I-I’m fine now. Are you—”

“Heh.” The bitter sound came out of his mouth before he could stop it. “I’m fine, Marinette. It didn’t hurt _me_.”

“Oh . . . right . . .” More foot shuffling. “I-I’m sorry, too. For . . . my reaction.”

He shook his head adamantly. “Don’t be sorry for that. I don’t blame you for feeling whatever you were feeling or for showing it. There’s nothing wrong with acting horrified with something horrifying happens.”

“But, it wasn’t—it wasn’t _you_. I didn’t mean to make you feel like . . .”

“Like you hated me?” he asked softly. He wasn’t trying to guilt her, but he did really want to hear it for certain.

“No!” she said in alarm.

“So, you don’t hate me?”

“No!”

He let out a small breath of relief, then he turned to look at her. She cringed back at his direct gaze, but there was fire in her blue eyes. “I’m really glad,” he told her. “It was awful, thinking you hated me.”

She fiddled with her hands, tapping her index fingers together. “Do . . . do you hate me?”

Adrien frowned in confusion. “Why would I hate you?”

She wrung her hands but couldn’t seem to find an answer to that question. “Is . . . is that a no?”

“Of course it’s a no, Marinette. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Her face turned away from him to stare at the wall. “What if I had?”

His frown deepened. “What does that mean?”

“What if . . . what if I should have seen the gas sooner and didn’t? Or I could have . . . I could have jumped into the bathroom and locked the door as soon as I saw what the gas was doing to Nino and Alya. Or—”

“Marinette. Stop. I could have done any of those things, too. Those and more.” Could have and should have. “But Fairy Grandmother and Hawk Moth got the drop on all of us. No one reacted fast enough to escape it.”

“Chloe did.”

“Chloe _says_ she did.”

The disappointed tone in Marinette’s voice when she said, “Yeah,” told him that she’d caught on to the probable lie as well and had been hoping it was her imagination. For Chloe’s sake, Adrien hoped they were both wrong, but he was ninety percent sure they weren’t. But he loved that even in the midst of her own trauma about what had happened, Marinette was able to spare some sympathy for Chloe, a girl she didn’t even like. Marinette really was an amazing person.

He had to say her name three times before she met his eyes again. “Can we still be friends?” he asked her. “Is that okay?” He knew she might say no. It would be a lot easier. But he didn’t want to lose a friend over this.

She gave him a smiling-through-the-tears smile without the tears, which was a little confusing, and said, “Please, yes.”

It was such a Marinette-ish thing to say that Adrien let out a huff of laughter and grinned back. “Good.” He offered his hand to her. “Friends, then.”

For a second, she stared at his hand like she wasn’t sure what it was, then tentatively reached to take it.

Adrien wasn’t prepared for the heat he felt in her hand or the shock of familiarity when his skin pressed against hers. It was only a handshake, for crying out loud. What was wrong with him?

He gave her hand a single shake, then stood and helped her to her feet before letting go. She was standing two steps above him now. And suddenly she’d gone quite red in the face.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Um, yeah, it’s not-nothing,” she said, fidgeting.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah! Nothing big! I mean, it’s not small! Not that I would know. I’m sure it’s just the right size. I mean, I don’t really have an opinion about it—”

Adrien stifled a laugh behind his fist. “Marinette, are you thinking about what I think you’re thinking about?”

“No!” Her blush deepened several shades.

Awkwardness and embarrassment and a crazy relief bubbled up into laughter he couldn’t stifle anymore. It was a laugh-or-else-I’ll-cry kind of thing.

Panic flashed in her eyes. “What?”

“I thought it was just me.”

She gaped at him. “You—you what?”

“I’m sorry, Marinette. I’m so sorry. But I have these things in my head now. And I can’t . . . I can’t . . .” His spontaneous, slightly manic laughter faded, leaving only embarrassment and awkwardness behind. “I don’t really want to avoid touching you forever, but maybe we should keep some distance for a while. Give those memories some time to fade.”

She nodded, still blushing. “Yeah—that—good. Make sense.”

“Then it’s a deal. Now, do you wanna go kick my butt in Mecha Strike?”

“Okay.”

Adrien led her down the stairs back toward his room and the party, trying not to think too much about what sorts of details Marinette remembered or what sorts of things she might blurt out when flustered while they were in a group. He’d better keep her good and distracted with video games while the party was—

“Sorry.” Marinette’s voice wasn’t loud, but it stopped him in his tracks.

He turned to find her staring at the steps at her feet. “What?”

“Sorry,” she repeated, raising her gaze to the banister.

“For what?”

“For the—your—head—memories. Sorry if I’m . . . gross.”

“What?!” Adrien wanted to grab her by the shoulders, but that would mean touching her, and they’d just decided not to do that. “You’re the exact opposite of _gross_ , Marinette. _That’s_ the problem.”

Her eyes snapped to his, wide and round like her mouth, and pink bloomed across her cheeks. “Oh.”

Adrien blushed in response and turned to continue down the stairs before she could ask him to elaborate.

But she didn’t. Instead, when he reached the landing and she was on the last step, she said, “You’re not gross, either.”

He didn’t turn to see her smile because he could hear it clearly enough in her voice and he didn’t want her to see how red he’d gotten. Privately, he resolved never to admit to anyone that even after a decade of modeling, ‘you’re not gross’ was now the best compliment he’d ever received about his looks.

#

“Thanks a lot for letting us come tonight, du—uh, sir.”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow at his son’s friend. “Don’t expect to make a habit of it.”

Most of the herd had already vacated, and Adrien was saying goodbye to the remaining three. Sacrificing the peace of his evening to the noise of a party was something Gabriel had not done lightly, so he’d come out to foyer to see if it had been worth it.

The Nino boy stood with his girlfriend—close, but not without some distance between them—waiting while the other girl used the restroom. One of the downstairs restrooms, not Adrien’s.

“So,” said the girl with the glasses. Alya, if Gabriel recalled correctly. The so-called Ladyblogger. Her judgment was highly suspect and her manners were less than adequate, but her website had been useful to him on occasion. A fact she no doubt would have been appalled to learn, but that was the danger of journalism. “You coming to school tomorrow, Adrien?”

Adrien nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be there.”

The girl with the pigtails— _Marinette_ , Gabriel reminded himself; he really would need to remember her name—ran into the foyer. “Okay, I’m ready.”

Gabriel eyed her. Clumsy with her body and her mouth, but she showed promise as a designer and at least sometimes displayed good manners. It could have been worse.

Nino started toward the exit with a wave backward. “Later, Adrien!”

Adrien waved to his friends. “See you tomorrow, guys! Thanks for coming!”

Alya followed her boyfriend, and Marinette paused in the doorway just long enough to look back, wave shyly, and say, “N-night, Adrien,” before scurrying away. Her infatuation with his son was obvious, even if Gabriel hadn’t already known she was one of Adrien’s admirers since she’d returned his stolen book.

Once the girl’s back was turned, Gabriel watched his son for any sign of discomfort at her fawning, but the smile stayed on Adrien’s face. He even let out a small, satisfied sigh. So, they were on good terms, even after what had happened. Did Adrien have feelings for her as well, or was he simply too ignorant about women to see that she had any for him? Most likely the latter.

“Adrien—” Gabriel started, meaning to tell him to go to bed, but his son surprised him by wrapping his arms tightly around Gabriel’s waist.

“Thank you for letting my friends come over, Father.”

Gabriel wasn’t in much of a hugging mood, so he patted his son’s shoulder until Adrien stepped back. “You’re welcome. I know this has been a difficult few days for you.”

“It has. But I do feel a lot better now.”

“I’m happy to hear that.”

Gabriel watched his son return to his room, hoping that tonight had strengthened him for what was to come.

#

Adrien flopped onto his bed and relaxed onto the mattress, which felt a lot softer and more comfortable than the last time he’d lain on it. “She doesn’t hate me, Plagg. Not Cat Noir _or_ Adrien. I don’t think anyone else does, either.” No one had bothered explaining to him why they’d jumped on Marinette to offer support, but Adrien was sure now that he’d just been overthinking and misinterpreting things. They were probably supporting her so much because she’s such a nice, supportive person who naturally made people sympathize with her.

“Sounds like you’re awfully happy about that,” Plagg teased. “Could it be someone has a new crush?”

Adrien sat up and scowled at Plagg. Normally, Plagg teasing him about a girl who wasn’t Ladybug was mildly annoying. But something about doing it right now felt crass. “No, Plagg. I’m just happy that I didn’t lose her as a friend. I’m not so shallow that I’m going to fall in love with a girl just because . . .” He trailed off, unsure which words he wanted to use to describe what had happened.

Plagg didn’t wait for him to figure it out. “I don’t know, Adrien. I’ve seen it happen before.”

“Not with me.” He clutched his shirt over his heart. “My feelings for Ladybug aren’t going to go away that easily. And even though I told her I’d stop flirting with her, I’m not going to give up my feelings for her until I know for sure that it’s forever hopeless.”

Plagg floated over and patted Adrien patronizingly on the head. “Oh, Adrien, Adrien.”

“What?”

“I almost want to help you, but you’re too much fun to watch,” Plagg said before diving into the cheese cupboard without explaining himself.

#

As soon as she was back in her bedroom, Marinette threw herself onto her chaise longue. “Tikki,” she said with her face pressed into the fabric, “I can’t believe I told Adrien he’s ‘not gross’. Was that really the best I could come up with?”

Tikki giggled. “He did say it to you first.”

Marinette turned onto her back. “His exact words were, ‘the opposite of gross.’ What’s the opposite of gross? Pretty?”

“I think it depends on context. In this case, ‘pretty’ sounds about right.”

Marinette sighed. “Adrien thinks I’m pretty.”

“Does that happy sigh mean you can get up the nerve to confess your feelings to him now?”

The nice, bubbly feeling in Marinette’s chest faded. “No. I’m sure Adrien thinks a lot of girls are pretty. I’m sure he thinks _Chloe_ is pretty. It doesn’t mean anything, really. And now would be the _worst_ time to tell him that I love him. We just started to get things normal again, and me telling him that would throw everything back into awkward-land. He said there’s already a girl he loves, so I know he doesn’t have any feelings for me. I . . . I really don’t think I could handle being rejected right now, Tikki. So I can’t risk telling him how I feel until I’m sure that he feels at least a little bit the same way.”

The expression on Tikki’s face was all sympathy. “Oh, Marinette.” She swooped down for a hug, and Marinette cuddled her to her cheek. “I have faith that things will work out for you two some day.”

Marinette wanted to believe her friend, but she really wasn’t so sure.


	11. Chapter 11

When Adrien went to school the next day, things were very nearly normal. He greeted his friends, chatted about video games and movies, returned Marinette’s little wave when she went up to her seat behind him, and no one in their class said a single word about anything out of the ordinary which may have happened in the past several days.

Maybe they really would be able to collectively put all of it behind them and move on.

A supervillain showed up near the waterfront at lunch time. It was Mr. Pigeon. Again.

Once the situation had been sorted, Cat Noir was about to head back to school (he still had time to eat lunch) when Ladybug stopped him by grabbing his belt and asked, “Hey, Cat Noir, how are you doing?” in the sort of tone that people use when they really want to know.

He planted his stick on the roof tiles and smiled at her. “Good. Thanks again for . . . talking me through some stuff the other day. And sorry for crying all over you. But I’m doing a lot better now. I finally talked things through with my friend—uh, that girl—and I really think everything’s going to be all right between us.”

Ladybug was visibly relieved. “I’m so happy to hear that.”

“How are, um, things going with that boy you like?” Cat Noir didn’t really want to bring it up, but after she’d asked about him, it was only polite.

Ladybug bit her lip in a shy gesture that looked quite strange on her. Strange but cute. He pushed aside a surge of envy for that other boy. “We talked about things, too,” Ladybug said. “I think—I hope—it’ll be okay.”

“He didn’t ask you out, did he?” Cat Noir wasn’t sure whether he meant it as a joke or not. He needed to wrap up this line of conversation before he got into territory he’d told her he wouldn’t anymore.

The look she gave him was reproving. “He wouldn’t do something that insensitive. Besides . . . I don’t think what happened changed anything about how he sees me. Not . . . not in any way that really matters.”

Cat Noir nodded in understanding and reminded himself that he shouldn’t mention how blind he thought the boy must be. “So, Mr. Pigeon again. Another softball. You think this is a new trend?”

Ladybug’s eyebrows lowered in thought. “I think it’s too early to tell. But if it is, it might mean Hawk Moth is losing his resolve. Maybe he’s on his way to giving up?”

Cat Noir highly doubted that, but he didn’t want to say so. He shrugged. “Maybe he’s _metamorphosing_ into a decent person. Get it? Because butterflies . . . Never mind. I gotta run. Places to go, people to see, lunches to eat.”

She started. “Oh, shoot! Lunch!”

Cat Noir laughed as they both launched themselves off of the roof and out into the city.

#

Things remained calm on the supervillain front. Too calm, Marinette was beginning to think. She wanted to hope that the string of tame supervillains meant that Hawk Moth was easing up because he was losing the will to keep fighting, but Marinette couldn’t get the idea out of her mind that he was doing it because there was something he knew that no one else did. It felt like the calm before the storm.

On the second Saturday after Fairy Grandmother’s attack, Alya came over to hang out in Marinette’s room with her. Even though things felt darn near normal at school lately, none of them had gone over to each other’s houses in mixed-gender groups. Not that Marinette knew of, anyway. She hadn’t gone over to Adrien’s again, and he certainly hadn’t come to her house. He hadn’t even come into the bakery, though his bodyguard had been by at least once to pick up some pastries.

“Alya?” Marinette was modeling a new jacket she’d designed, to get Alya’s opinion, but her friend didn’t seem to be paying complete attention. In fact, she’d been distracted since she came over. “Is something bothering you?”

“Well . . . sort of . . .”

Marinette moved closer, and the two girls sat facing each other on the chaise longue. “What is it?”

It took Alya a few seconds to work up to what she wanted to say. “Have you . . . have you gotten your period since . . . what happened?”

The question was like a bucket of cold water dropped onto Marinette’s head. No one in her circle of friends and family had directly spoken about Fairy Grandmother’s attack since the night they all went over to Adrien’s house for the impromptu party. “Um, no, mine isn’t due until next week. Why?”

Alya gave her a pained and slightly annoyed look. “ _Why?_ ” she repeated.

Marinette felt all the blood drain from her face as she realized what Alya meant. It hadn’t even occurred to her to worry about . . . that. The sex itself had been a foreign and frightening concept that was hard enough to deal with actually happening. Any thought of babies was not even on Marinette’s radar. “Oh.” Her mouth suddenly felt dry. “Have you?”

“I’m four days late.”

“That-that’s normal, right? I mean, it’s not that late.”

“Yeah . . .” Alya said, “but I’m usually pretty regular.”

“I’m sure it’s just a fluke,” Marinette insisted. “I’m sure you’ll start any time now.”

“But what if I don’t?”

“Alya, you can’t—you can’t be _pregnant_. That’s ridiculous.”

“It isn’t, though. Nino and I did have sex.”

“Once! Against your will! And you can’t even remember it!”

“None of that actually matters. Believe me, I wish it did.”

Marinette got up and strode over to her design dummy to rehang the jacket. “Alya, you’re being paranoid. You can’t have a _baby_. You’re fourteen.”

“Nora hasn’t had her period yet either.”

Marinette refused to hear that additional piece of info. She went back to her friend and laid reassuring hands on her shoulders. “It’s fine, Alya. You’ll start today or tomorrow, and you’ll see that everything’s fine.”

#

The next day, a short post appeared on the Ladyblog that wasn’t about Ladybug or Cat Noir or Hawk Moth. When Adrien read it during the few minutes he had before breakfast, a wave of lightheadedness and nausea threatened to overwhelm him.

_Possible Aftermath of Fairy Grandmother’s Attack?_ was the title.

_I don’t mean to alarm anyone_ , Alya had written, _but have any of you ladies out there who were caught by Fairy Grandmother’s mind-control gas_ _gotten_ _your periods since the attack? Because_ _this Ladyblogger_ _hasn’t, and none of the other women I’ve talked to have either._ _So I thought I’d put it out there and see if I could get a wider sampling of responses. I know this is personal information, but you don’t have to give your name or any info about yourself. If you’re a female who was caught by the gas and didn’t get lucky enough to just go catatonic, please let us know if you’ve gotten your period yet or not._

There were a lot of comments already.

_Now that you mention it, I am a couple days late._

_OMG, I thought it was just me!_

_No, but mine’s not due yet._

_Haha, I don’t pay attention to timing. When it comes, it comes._

_Well, no, but my husband and I have been trying to get pregnant._

_Mine’s late, too! What does this mean? I’m worried!_

And on it went.

For a brief moment, Adrien had the urge to call Marinette and ask if she’d gotten hers. Which was not something he’d ever have expected to want to ask any of his female friends. But he immediately realized he didn’t need to. When Alya’d said ‘none of the other women I’ve talked to’, that had to include Marinette.

Somehow, Adrien made it through the day until lunch time. When he took a break from the photoshoot he was doing, he checked the Ladyblog. There was an update to the post.

_If you’re tracking the comments, you’ve noticed that there’s a definite trend in women not having gotten their periods since the incident. Some women have posted that they’ve confirmed they’re pregnant. Some have commented that they took a pregnancy test after this article was posted this morning and the results were positive. I’ve gotten additional private e-mails confirming similar information and results. I think we shouldn’t panic until more data is gathered, but I gotta be honest with you all: I’m worried._

_Could it be that Fairy Grandmother’s power wasn’t just forcing people to have sex but also forcing fertility? The odds that any single act of sex would result in pregnancy are low. The fact that many of the women responding were at a point in their cycle where they shouldn’t have normally been able to get pregnant also lends credibility to the idea that this is not the naturally-occurring results of that much wide-spread sex but a magical part of the superpowers that Hawk Moth gave Fairy Grandmother._

_If that’s the case, what does it mean for Paris? What does it mean that Hawk Moth would go to such a length? And what does it mean that Ladybug’s magic couldn’t undo any of it?_

After reading that, Adrien was so useless for the rest of the shoot that the photographer sent him home early.

By the time Adrien was about to go down for dinner, the TV news had picked up the story.

“Speaking for myself,” said a slightly stunned-looking Nadja Chamak, “I can confirm similar results to what citizens have been posting on the website The Ladyblog. In fact, I just took a pregnancy test, and the results came back positive.” She tried to look happy about this, then switched to playing it off. “I hadn’t been planning to have another child right now, but I hadn’t planned my first one either.” Someone whisper-shouted her name from off-camera. She composed herself. “While this is still a developing story and we don’t have all the facts in yet, we do recommend that any women or teen girls who had intercourse as a result of Fairy Grandmother’s mind-control gas do a home pregnancy test if they have not had their period since the event.”

Adrien turned off his TV and made his way to the dining room. He picked at his food and stewed in his own thoughts. Not that he could form many thoughts. Mostly, he just had feelings: panic, terror, mortification, fury.

What if Marinette really was . . . He couldn’t quite make himself think the word. The concept was so ludicrous. Because if she was, life as he knew it was over. _Her_ life was over. Hawk Moth will have ended it, and Adrien will have been the tool he’d used to do it. How could she continue to pursue design? How could she even go to college if she wanted to?

No. He wouldn’t let that happen. He’d make sure she—and the . . . the baby—were taken care of. His money was at least good for that. Well, his family’s money. He’d have to convince his father.

Even as he thought it, Gabriel came into the room and sat down to eat. Adrien couldn’t help staring at him, wanting to talk about all of this but having no idea how to start.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow at him. “May I take it from that expression on your face that you’ve read the Ladyblog today?”

“Yes, Father.”

Gabriel nodded and went back to eating. “One step at a time, son. I won’t allow any of this to affect your future.”

The tightness in Adrien’s chest eased a tiny amount, despite himself. “It’s Marinette I’m worried about.”

Gabriel gave him a dubious look and made a displeased, irritated-sounding hum.

If something really was happening—and Adrien desperately hoped it wasn’t—then it wasn’t likely to go smoothly.

#

Later that evening, while Gabriel was at his workstation, Nathalie came in and told him, “The results are back from the doctor. They were positive.”

Gabriel hadn’t had any hope they would be anything else, but it was prudent to at least be certain. “Have you ever _want_ _ed_ a child, Nathalie?”

“I never prioritized it, but I never ruled it out, either. But . . . ” Her posture and expression softened. “Gabriel, I’m not angry that this happened.”

“That’s good,” he said. “Though I can feel a great many others out there who are.” He certainly hadn’t been lacking in potential akuma victims lately. But he’d held himself back. He knew he shouldn’t. He knew that this was the perfect time to push, possibly even try the Scarlet Moth plan again.

“Why aren’t you taking advantage of it?” Nathalie asked as if she could read his thoughts.

He considered his answer. Could it be guilt? Could it be seeing how much pain his actions had caused his son? If so, he was being foolish. The damage was done. Going soft on his efforts to save Emilie wouldn’t undo the pain Adrien was in. If anything, having his mother back would make him feel a great deal better. “You’re absolutely right, Nathalie. This is the time to press the advantage. And I can feel someone right now who could help me do that.” He closed the program he was working in for the night, but before turning to head to his lair, he told Nathalie, “You can keep the child for yourself or give it to me. The choice is yours. The child will be provided for either way.”

“Thank you, Gabriel. I will keep that in mind.”

As Gabriel went to his lair, he wondered what she would choose to do. If she decided to hand the child over to him—or even if she raised it herself but remained in his employ—he would have to find a future for the child. If it ended up being very much like Nathalie, it might make a valuable assistant for Adrien when the time came for him to run the company.

He would sort the future out as it came. Right now, he had a troubled soul to akumatize.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments, you guys! I may not respond to many of them, but I love reading all your thoughts, encouragements, and questions. I'm very tempted to answer some of them sometimes, but I know from experience that it's far more satisfying to just let the story play out. It does help me see if I've left something unintentionally confusing, or if there's some aspect I need to make sure to address, though.

Marinette had been steadfastly avoiding the internet and TV ever since Alya texted her Sunday morning that she’d made a post on the Ladyblog to find out if anyone else who should have had their period by now didn’t. She’d even avoided the two texts Alya sent later in the day, just in case they were talking about that topic. A topic which Marinette absolutely did not want to talk about. What other girls’ bodies were doing was no concern of hers. Her period wasn’t due until Wednesday, which meant it would be Saturday at the earliest before she would allow herself to even begin to worry. But it wouldn’t come to that because her period would definitely come on time, and Alya’s would come any second now, just as she said. In fact, those other texts were probably Alya telling her that her period started and apologizing for scaring Marinette. Yes, that was definitely it. Marinette was so sure, she didn’t even have to check.

So instead of wasting time with media, Marinette cloistered herself away in her room and got productive on some design work. That was probably why she didn’t find out there was a supervillain running around until her ceiling burst into flames.

Marinette fell backwards out of her chair and cried, “Tikki, spots on!”

Ladybug dove through her portal window and landed on the street below. Her parents were running out onto the street from the bakery.

Tom reached a pleading hand toward her. “Ladybug! Our daughter’s still in her room! You have to save her!”

“Already done, Mr. Dupain,” she replied. “I, uh, got Marinette to safety just now. I’m sure she’ll get home again once this villain is dealt with.”

“But where—”

Ladybug didn’t stick around to hear the rest of his question.

Her house wasn’t the only building on fire. She could see at least three others in the same area that were inexplicably ablaze. Bounding to a non-firey rooftop, she looked out over the city to see burning buildings dotted all around for at least half a mile, but there was a greater concentration in one particular area to the south.

When she arrived on the scene, she paused on top of a semi truck to get a quick lay of the land. A male-shaped villain in an elaborate red and yellow suit stood in the middle of a burning intersection, shouting incoherently in a great, booming voice. As she watched, he formed two large balls of fire in his hands and threw them in high arcs out into the city.

Cat Noir touched down beside her. “Goodness gracious. This one may be too hot to handle.”

“Do you have your power-ups on you, Cat Noir?”

“Always, Milady.”

“Good. Meet me back here in thirty seconds.” They ran off in opposite directions. Ladybug found a convenient alleyway and used her yo-yo to retrieve a small, red macaron. “Spots off. Tikki, power up.” She waited for her kwami to munch the macaron, then said, “Pyro-Tikki, spots on!”

Now wearing a full-body suit which she assumed was fireproof, Ladybug made it back to the truck at the same instant a fire-suited Cat Noir did.

“Let’s make sure there are no people caught in the flames around here, then we need to find the akuma,” she told him.

“Got it!”

They made a circuit around Flamethrower, but fortunately there weren’t any people caught in what had become a solid hundred square feet of pure inferno.

“Nothing to report,” Cat Noir said as they came together again.

“Same here. Any idea about the akuma?” The lenses on Ladybug’s fire mask helped dim the light, but she was still squinting through the flames.

“That hat he’s wearing looks kind of out of place with his costume. It could be in there.”

“Good eye, Cat Noir. I didn’t realize you know how to coordinate outfits.” She took off through the flames with her partner right beside her.

“Don’t let my costume fool you, Milady. I’m not all about basic black, though I do look amazing in it.”

Flamethrower spotted them and shot out two balls of fire which splashed off their costumes like lukewarm water.

It wasn’t an easy fight. In addition to the fire, Flamethrower was strong and fast. By the end, both heroes had used their special abilities and taken multiple powerful blows. But they kept the fight in one place so no more people would be put in danger, and eventually the akuma was captured.

By the time the magic ladybugs had fixed everything, Ladybug was down to two spots.

A teen girl ran out of a building toward the man who had been Flamethrower, asking if he was okay. As Ladybug and Cat Noir stood on the other side of the street, the voices of the man and girl were loud enough to make it clear what had upset him. The girl was the man’s sixteen-year-old daughter and had recently told him that she was pregnant. The man had blamed the girl’s boyfriend and flown into a fiery rage. Now, as soon as she made sure her dad was unharmed, the girl argued in her boyfriend’s defense.

This was not an argument that Ladybug had any interest at all in getting involved with, and from the way Cat Noir’s back was turned to the arguing pair, he clearly didn’t either.

“So much for Hawk Moth lightening up,” Ladybug said.

Cat Noir shrugged. “The lull was nice while it lasted.”

“I gotta get back.”

“Uh, Ladybug . . . have you read the Ladyblog tod—”

Ladybug was already swinging through the air. “Can’t hear you! Gotta go!”

#

The next morning while going in to school, Adrien ran into Nino on the school steps. “Hey, Nino.”

Nino jumped, startled. “Adrien, my dude! How are you this fine morning?”

“Um . . . good?” Though really, Adrien had been so worried and full of nerves since yesterday that his stomach ached. “Have you, um, heard anything from Alya—”

Nino twitched.

“Are you okay, Nino?”

Nino looped an arm over Adrien’s shoulders and steered him to the side so the other kids passing by wouldn’t hear. “Not anything other than what I read on the blog. You?”

Adrien shook his head. There hadn’t been any further updates on the Ladyblog, but the morning shows were all talking about women getting pregnant after Fairy Grandmother’s attack. The thought of asking Marinette about it was terrifying, but he wasn’t sure how much longer he could live with not knowing anything.

Just as he was thinking it, Alya and Marinette appeared at the bottom of the steps, Alya’s arm looped around Marinette’s. Nino jumped away from Adrien and twitched in the direction of the school courtyard before turning to the girls with a wide smile and rubbing the back of his head nervously with one hand.

“Hey, boys,” Alya said.

“Alya!” Nino returned. “H-how’s it going?”

“Great!” Alya answered. “Totally normal and not weird!”

“Me too!” Nino replied. “One hundred percent normal and not at all weird!”

Adrien wanted to point out that they were both acting weird, but he wasn’t entirely sure he understood what was going on yet. “Marinette . . .” he started.

“I’m ate, Gradrien, thanks for asking!” Marinette interrupted him. “Totally, totally normal! Nothing’s weird here!”

“That’s good, but—”

She dragged Alya into the school by her arm. “Don’t want to be late to class! See you guys in there!”

Had everyone been hypnotized when Adrien wasn’t around? Why was everyone working so hard to ignore the elephant in the room? Ladybug had been that way too. Was he the only one who wanted to know what was going on rather than avoid the issue?

When they got to class, Marinette wouldn’t look at him when he turned around to try to talk to her. Every time he did, she started up a conversation with someone else. Nino kept trying to talk to him about a new band he’d heard. Everyone else seemed to be talking about normal things, too.

As things were quieting down so class could begin, Max asked the room in general, “Did anyone else see the news about Fair—”

Alix reached over and punched him in the face. Actually punched him right in the jaw. Then leaned in and growled, “We’re not talking about that.”

Miss Bustier didn’t even reprimand her. Adrien wondered if the teacher would make them talk things out like she had before, but from the way she briskly started the lesson, it didn’t seem like she was going to do anything like that this time.

Adrien resigned himself to nervously waiting for an answer. If Marinette wasn’t ready to tell him—or ready to know anything herself—it wasn’t his place to push her.

So, things remained ‘totally normal and not weird’ until Thursday, when art class had them separated into two groups—boys and girls—to work on group collage projects. The girls stayed in the art room while the boys found space in the otherwise unoccupied library.

“At the risk of getting punched again,” Max said while sorting newspaper ads, “can I bring up the news? I can’t be the only one who’s seen all the talk about the Fairy Grandmother pregnancies.”

Nino and Nathaniel both shrunk in their seats and kept their heads down. Kim started whistling and used too much glue on the paper scraps he was putting together. Adrien just kept working on cutting the models out of fashion magazine ads.

“Is that what they’re calling it?” Ivan asked.

Max shrugged. “Every phenomenon needs a name.”

“It’s a phenomenon?”

Max set the newspaper clippings down. “Of all the females affected by the Fairy Grandmother attack who have publicly reported results since Alya first posted about it on the Ladyblog, seventy-two-point-eight percent have claimed missing or late periods, and the rest have said their periods were not yet due or they don’t know if they were late. Additionally, thirty-nine-point-one percent of reporting women have confirmed that they’re now pregnant. While four-point-five percent of women confirmed they were not pregnant”—Adrien felt a tiny instant of hope, until Max continued—“eighty-seven of _them_ later corrected that report as a false negative, saying that they tested again and actually are pregnant. There is no way of knowing if the remaining reports were also false negatives. Even accounting for the number of women who were likely to be already pregnant when the attack happened, that still leaves a significantly larger than average number of pregnancies among an otherwise heterogeneous sampling of Parisian women. Don’t you think that qualifies as a phenomenon?”

Ivan looked a bit dazed by Max’s rapid recitation of statistics, which he hid by shrugging and getting back to work.

Max redirected his attention to Nino. “Hasn’t Alya said anything to you? She was the first one to notice it—or at least to make it public. Surely she’s already done a pregnancy test.”

Nino’s cheeks reddened, but his attention remained laser-focused on the googly eyes he was gluing to some tabloid celebrities. “She hasn’t said anything, and I’m not going to ask.”

“Why not?” Max asked.

Nino shot him a glare. “Because it’s her business, and I’m not going to force her to make it mine too.” His tone allowed no further questions.

So Max shifted to Kim. “What about Ondine?”

“Uh, well . . .” Kim’s face contorted in that way people’s did when they weren’t sure if they should talk about something or not. “She told me not to tell anyone.”

Everyone at the table instantly snapped their focus to him.

Adrien knew it would be rude to ask, but he couldn’t help it. “Kim, is Ondine pregnant?”

Kim kind of squint-cringed when he said, “Yyyeeeaaahhh.”

Silence.

This was it. The first confirmation that someone in their class was actually going to be a parent because of this whole mess.

Because of Adrien’s failure.

“How . . . how do you feel about that?” he asked Kim.

“I dunno. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.” The discomfort Kim had been expressing was gone now that he’d decided whether or not to tell them. He grinned. “All I know is, I’m gonna be a rockin’ dad.” Then he stuck a pose, flexing his bicep, as if he thought fatherhood was something he could medal in. Of course, this being Kim, he probably did.

“Kim is going to be a father.” Max’s voice sounded like he’d seen a ghost. “Poor kid.”

“Poor Ondine,” Nino added with a smirk.

“What are you and her gonna do?” Ivan asked. “You gonna get married or something?”

Kim’s posing failed him, and he gaped at Ivan. “I . . . I dunno. Should we?”

“Legally, you can’t even if you wanted to,” Max pointed out. “You’re too young.”

Kim looked relieved at that. Then something in his head seemed to confuse him, and he sank into meditative silence with his brow deeply furrowed.

Nathaniel had been keeping low this whole time, so when he paused in his sketching and breathed, “Wow,” it sounded louder than it really was.

“How about you, Nathaniel?” Max asked.

Nathaniel’s head snapped up. “What do you mean?”

“Have you heard anything from Alix?”

Nathaniel sank back into his seat. “No.”

“And you’re not going to ask her?”

“After how she punched you? Not a chance.” He dug his hands into his red hair, clutching his head. “This is a nightmare. What if she is? What do I do? She’s gonna kill me—if her dad and her older brother don’t do it first.”

Kim broke out away from whatever he’d been contemplating to laugh. “You’re afraid of Jalil? He’s just a nerd.”

“I’m a nerd, too, Kim! And he’s bigger than me!”

“Good point,” Kim conceded. “Yeah, you’d be dead.”

At this point, Adrien couldn’t resist pointing out, “I’m pretty sure Alix’s dad and brother _put together_ aren’t as big as Marinette’s dad.”

“Plus, Mr. Dupain spends all day pounding lumps of dough.” Nino shook his head sadly and laid a hand on Adrien’s shoulder. “It’s been nice knowing you, buddy.”

“Don’t start planning my funeral just yet. None of us besides Kim know anything for sure.”

“And you don’t want to ask either?” Max inquired.

“I’m with Nino on this one,” Adrien answered. “It’s not my business unless and until Marinette decides to make it my business. I have even less right to ask than Nino, since at least Alya is his girlfriend.”

“True,” Max allowed, “but Mar—”

Nino elbowed Max in the ribs, shutting him up. Max glowered at him but didn’t finish whatever point he’d been trying to make.

Adrien waited long enough to see that Max was done talking and added, “And I don’t think any of us are getting killed. The girls all know it wasn’t our fault.” Though it was _his_ fault, at least in part, but Marinette didn’t know that. “However,” he resolved, “that doesn’t mean they should be the only ones dealing with the fallout. If they are preg-pregnant”—he was still having a hard time dealing with the concept well enough to actually say the words aloud—“then we’ve got to support them in whatever ways they need. Right, guys?”

Nino, Nathaniel, and Kim said, “Right.”

Even Ivan nodded.

And Max said, “Don’t forget about the rest of us. We’re all a team, aren’t we?”

Adrien smiled, thinking of Pegasus and how Ladybug had made a good choice with him. “Right.”


	13. Chapter 13

While all the boys were out of the art room, the girls finally broke down and talked about The Forbidden Topic. They’d begun to organize and cut out bits of magazines for their collage when Alya let out a huff and said, “Still no word from Aunt Flo.”

Rose giggled and repeated, “Aunt Flo,” to herself.

“How late are you?” asked Mylène.

“Late enough to be really, really scared,” said Alya.

Alix made a dismissive sound. “Sometimes I skip months entirely. I’m crazy irregular. I’m not worried.”

“You’re an athletic girl with really low body fat,” Alya pointed out. “That’s why it’s normal for you. Most of us don’t have that excuse.”

“You haven’t taken a test yet?” Juleka asked.

Alya shook her head. “My journalist side got all excited when I realized something might be happening. But my regular girl side doesn’t want to think it might really be happening to _me_.”

“What about you, Marinette?” Mylène asked.

Marinette’s fingers tightened into fists, crushing the page she was working with. “No! I-I’m only a day late. There’s no need to worry.”

Mylène’s eyes were soft and full of pity. Marinette couldn’t stand to look at them because there was nothing to pity. “You still haven’t told him how you feel, have you?” Mylène asked.

Marinette’s shoulders slumped. “No, and this would be a terrible time to do it.”

No one disagreed with her.

It was quiet for a while except for the sounds of cutting and shuffling paper. Eventually, Alya raised her voice enough to clearly reach Chloe and Sabrina sitting on the floor a dozen feet away. “What about you, Chloe?”

“What _about_ me?”

Alya rolled her eyes. “Come on, Chloe, we can all tell you’re lying about not having gotten caught in the gas with a guy. We’re not gonna press you to tell us who it was, but you can at least stop pretending you’re not concerned like the rest of us.”

Chloe huffed loudly. “Did you just call me a liar?”

“Chloe,” Marinette sighed. Why did the girl always have to be so difficult?

“And _you_ , Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” Chloe spat. “You think that just because you were lucky enough to get cozy with Adrien, he’s going to fall in love with you? You’re dreaming!”

Alya leapt to her feet. “Chloe! You know it’s not like that!”

Marinette wanted to argue, but she didn’t because: A) she knew Chloe was right about how this changed nothing as far as Adrien was concerned, and B) she just didn’t have the energy, especially when it was so obvious that Chloe was only lashing out because she was still in denial about whatever had happened to her that day. Even though she didn’t like Chloe, Marinette wished the rich girl would see that the rest of them would support her in this, at least, if she’d just be willing to work with them. “Leave her alone, Alya,” Marinette said wearily. “She’s not gonna talk about it until she’s ready, especially not to us.”

Alya took her seat, but Chloe got the last word in by snapping, “There’s nothing to talk about!”

The worried, uncomfortable look on Sabrina’s face said differently, though.

#

On Friday morning, Marinette’s attempt to get ready for school on time was interrupted by a couple of weird gremlin things bursting through her window. They were about three feet tall, moved on all fours, and made wet, squishy sounds with their mouths. It was pretty disgusting. Marinette tried beating one off with the hairbrush she’d been holding, but the gremlin didn’t go after her—it went after her computer, smashing it to pieces before looking for something else to destroy. With a growl of irritation, Marinette said, “Tikki, spots on!” and climbed up onto her roof.

Sure enough, the gremlins were swarming all over the place, ripping open car engines and smashing through windows. They didn’t seem to be attacking any people, but they were doing everything they could to get at anything electronic. Which would be a real problem if they invaded a hospital or any number of other sensitive buildings.

Ladybug swung down the streets, scanning the area for signs of a supervillain or any gremlins that were marked as different from the others in some way. With something like this, there had to be one—or possibly more—beings controlling the others. Some source for all of this. But she traveled several blocks and didn’t see anything but more gremlins. She couldn’t even tell which direction they were all coming from.

Cat Noir was already fighting a bunch of them in the middle of a big intersection. He kept swatting at them with his stick, but nothing seemed to keep them down for long.

“Cat Noir!” she shouted at him from on top of a street lamp. “It’s no use! We need to find the source!”

“Any idea where it is?” he shouted back, still trying to fight the things.

“I haven’t been able to find it! Have you?”

He broke away from the gremlins and extended his stick, perching on the top of it to talk to her. “I looked, but I couldn’t find who’s controlling them. Do you think it could be some kind of mass sentimonster?”

“Possibly, but let’s assume it’s an akumatized villain for now, since that’s more likely. I think we’re gonna need help with all of these, though.”

Cat Noir nodded. “More eyes would make it easier to spread out and search for the source.”

“I’ll be back soon. For now, do what you can to keep the gremlins away from the hospital or any other sensitive areas. They’re going after electronics, not people.”

“Got it.” He vaulted away, and Ladybug raced toward the apartment she’d found Master Fu in the last time she’d needed him. Luckily, he was still staying there.

Alya and Nino were both at home, not yet having left for school. She picked up Alya first. When she knocked on Nino’s window and signaled for him to come outside, he didn’t look happy to see Rena Rouge standing there waiting for him as well.

“Al—I mean, Rena, what are you doing?” he asked as if catching her breaking some rule.

“What do you mean?” Rena gestured behind them, where a gremlin ran by with a handful of wires. “Ladybug needs help.”

“Yeah, but . . .” He looked from Rena to Ladybug and back, his certainty leaking away. “I mean . . .”

“I don’t know what this is about,” Ladybug said, stepping up to hand him the Turtle Miraculous, “but Cat Noir and I need your help with this one. These gremlins are all over the city, and we need to track down the supervillain controlling them so we can defeat it.”

“Right,” Nino said, taking the Miraculous. He quickly transformed, and the three of them headed off to meet up with Cat Noir.

With all four of them, it didn’t take them long to track down the supervillain—who took the form of a bigger, flashier-looking gremlin—and once they found him, defeating him was easy. Cat Noir took off as soon as they’d done their four-way fist-bump, but Ladybug still had to make sure Rena and Carapace got home.

They stopped at Nino’s house first. After he’d given Ladybug back the Miraculous, he looked like he wanted to say something to Rena again, but only shook his head and ran inside.

Ladybug raised an eyebrow at Rena. “What was all that about?”

Rena Rouge bit her lip, studying the door her boyfriend had gone through. “I’m not sure. It’s the first time he’s acted this way about me being a superhero.”

“You don’t think he’s getting jealous, do you?”

“He’s not usually the jealous type.” Rena’s pendant beeped. “We’d better hurry.”

Marinette still manged to make it to school on time, but just barely. When she slid into her seat beside Alya, she noticed that her friend didn’t look particularly happy. “What’s wrong?” she whispered.

Alya sighed, lightening up a little. “Nothing. Just my boyfriend acting like there’s something he wants to say but won’t actually say it.”

Nino was absorbed in a conversation with Adrien, so if he heard them talking about him, he was choosing to ignore it.

“What do you think it’s about?” Marinette asked.

Lowering her voice even more, Alya said, “There’s only one thing I can think of, but even knowing that, I can’t figure out what it is he wants to say.”

_Oh._ If this was about maybe being . . . well, that thing she definitely couldn’t be . . . then Marinette really didn’t want to wonder too hard about what Nino was thinking.

#

On Saturday, Alya came over to spend some time at Marinette’s. Sabine brought them lunch in Marinette’s room, and they ate it while watching a show and bouncing around ideas for places to go in the afternoon.

After the lunch rush in the bakery passed, Sabine knocked on Marinette’s door. “Marinette? Can I come in?”

Figuring she was there to take their empty plates back to the kitchen, Marinette called, “Yeah, Mom!”

But Sabine didn’t just take the plates and retreat. She came all the way up into the room. “Marinette,” she said in her usual sweet voice, “can I talk to you for a minute?”

Marinette paused the show, her heart jumping. “Y-yeah, Mom. What’s up?”

“Do you want me to go?” Alya asked, getting up.

“No, Alya, I think it’s good that you’re here, too. Why don’t you both sit?” Sabine gestured to the chaise longue and waited until Marinette and Alya sat down there, then pulled up the desk chair to face them. “Marinette, honey, I have some good news.”

Despite her words, Marinette’s stomach felt like she might throw up.

Sure enough, Sabine said, “You’re going to be a big sister.”

Marinette swallowed convulsively, trying to make her throat open enough for words to get out, but it wasn’t working.

Alya’s jaw dropped. “You’re pregnant, Mrs. Dupain-Cheng?”

“That’s right, Alya,” Sabine said. Calm smile. Calm voice. As if this had all been planned.

“This is because of Fairy Grandmother, isn’t it?” Alya asked.

Sabine shrugged. “Well, we can’t say for certain. We weren’t exactly trying _not_ to get pregnant—”

Marinette held up a hand. “Bupbupbupbup.” There were some things she did not need details about.

Alya blinked a few times. “Well, uh . . . congratulations?”

“Thank you, dear,” Sabine said.

Marinette forced back the sudden terror that her mom’s news had caused, reminding herself that everything wasn’t about her and that this was really big news. “So, you guys are happy about it?”

“Of course we’re happy. Why wouldn’t we be? Of course, we’ll need to convert the guest room into a nursery, but there’s plenty of time for that.”

“I’m gonna be a big sister,” Marinette said, trying really hard to focus on that.

“Yeah,” Alya said awkwardly. “That’s really cool, Marinette. Being a big sis can be a pain, but it can be pretty cool, too.”

Marinette got up and hugged her mom. “I’m really happy for you, Mom.”

Sabine returned her hug for a few seconds, then gently pushed her back toward her seat. There was an awkward silence where Sabine watched Marinette and Alya begin to fidget. “Marinette,” Sabine said eventually, “I think you should take a pregnancy test.”

Marinette’s throat tightened, and her stomach lurched around. “Wh-why?”

Sabine let out a small sigh. “Sweetie, refusing to face reality will only make you less prepared for whatever comes. I can see that you’ve been on edge all week. You’re going to be on edge until you know for sure. If the test is negative, you can put your mind at ease.”

“But . . .” Tears welled up in Marinette’s eyes. “What if it’s not?”

“Then the sooner you know, the sooner you can start dealing with it.”

No. No, it couldn’t be that. Marinette _knew_ it couldn’t be that. Her head started to shake on its own, and she couldn’t get it to stop.

A warm hand wrapped around hers. Alya. “Marinette,” she said in a resigned voice, “your mom’s right. It’s time.”

Marinette met her friend’s gaze, tears spilling down her cheeks, but Alya’s face was dry.

Alya’s hand squeezed hers. “We’ll do it together. Okay?”

This was it. She couldn’t avoid this fork in the road any longer. Her mom and her best friend had her cornered, and they obviously weren’t going to let her. If Tikki could come out and weigh in, Marinette had a feeling she’d be on their side.

“Okay.” The word was barely more than a whisper, but it was as much as Marinette could manage at the moment.

“I have some extra tests downstairs,” Sabine said, getting up. She laid a hand on each of the girls’ shoulders and squeezed. “Come down when you’re ready.”

After she left, Alya asked, “Do you think we should see if Alix wants to come over?”

Marinette nodded. They could probably all use the support, and doing it as a group might make it less scary. “Chloe, too.”

Alya quirked an eyebrow at her.

Marinette shrugged. “I’d feel bad if she found out later that we didn’t invite her.”

Unsurprisingly, Chloe didn’t show up. Somewhat surprisingly, given her blasé attitude about it on Thursday, Alix did. They took turns going into the bathroom, and Sabine set the timer. The four of them sat together in the living room, no one able to speak, until the timer rang. Sabine turned off the timer, and the three girls picked up their pregnancy tests.

Marinette’s eyes were shut tight, and she had to force them to open to see the results.

Her stomach fell out of her, and her head floated away from her body.

Dazed, she looked up to see wide-eyed, stunned expressions on the other two girls.

Then Alya’s eyes slid closed, and she let out a resigned sigh.

Alix cursed.

Marinette felt tears make trails down her cheeks.

Sabine walked toward her, and Marinette jumped up and hugged her mother as tightly as she could, burying her face in Sabine’s shoulder. Then Alya clamped her arms around Marinette as well. Then Alix joined the hug. Sabine soothed them all with quiet words and reassurances until they were able to step away.

“Everything will work out,” Sabine told Marinette. “Your father and I will support you every step of the way, and we’ll all go through it together.”

“Dad!” Marinette gasped, horrified at the thought of telling him.

“It’s okay, Marinette,” Sabine assured her. “He’s known this was a possibility for a while, and he’s working through it. I’ll let him know so you don’t have to.”

Alya smiled wryly. “I wish I didn’t have to tell my parents.”

“Me, neither,” agreed Alix.

“If they’ve been paying attention to the news, they must be somewhat prepared for it,” Sabine said.

“Yeah, probably,” Alya agreed. “It’s still gonna suck.”

“Can we maybe put that off a little bit?” asked Alix. “Like, maybe we can just get pizza and hang out for a while? I really need some time to deal with this before I see anyone else.”

Marinette knew exactly how she felt. “We’ve still got all afternoon. Pizza and movies in my room?”

“Heck yeah,” Alya agreed.

Sabine gave them all another reassuring smile. “That sounds like a good idea. You girls go on up. I’ll order the pizza and bring it up when it arrives. Let me know if you need anything else.”

Hours later, after the sun had set and her friends had left, Marinette lay in bed, unable to get to sleep. “I just can’t believe it, Tikki.” She was on her back, stroking her flat belly. “Everything’s happening so, so fast.”

“It certainly is,” Tikki said, her voice soft and soothing. “But you’re strong, Marinette. You can handle it. And you’ve got a lot of great people supporting you.”

“I’m pregnant,” she said, because she had to say it aloud. It was true. She’d seen the evidence. They’d all even done a second test a couple hours later to be sure, but the results hadn’t changed. It was real, so she needed to believe it. If she couldn’t say it aloud, how was she going to deal with the reality of it? “I’m pregnant. I have a baby inside me. I have . . . I have . . .” Tears filled her eyes, and her throat tightened. “I have Adrien’s baby inside me.”

Even through the fear and worry and shock, that thought made a flame of happiness spark in her chest. It was utterly unreal. Her daydreams of a future with Adrien had always included kids. But the reality of it—that it was actually happening and at this time in their lives . . . it was almost more than she could wrap her head around.

“Adrien’s baby,” she murmured, stroking her belly. She couldn’t feel the baby yet. She knew it would be a while before she’d be able to. But knowing it was there struck her with a feeling that she could only liken to being given a Miraculous. Something incredibly precious had been shoved into her hands, and she felt woefully under-prepared for the responsibility.

But would _he_ think it was precious as well? Or would he be sad that the one carrying his baby wasn’t the girl he loved? Would he resent Marinette for taking this precious thing from him without asking? Would he not want to admit it was his at all?

Marinette tried not to imagine how his father would react. She tried not to imagine Adrien using his father’s reaction as an excuse not to get tied up with a girl he didn’t love. She tried not to imagine Adrien saying, “I’m really sorry, Marinette, but I can’t help you with this.” She tried not to hear him following that up with, “I mean, how can I really even be sure it’s mine?”

Tears ran down her face, and she clung to the fact that even if he didn’t ever love her, even if he wanted nothing to do with this baby, she would always have this precious piece of him in her life. If he never accepted her love, she would pour all the love she had for him into this one piece of him that would always be hers.

“You have to tell him,” Tikki said softly.

Marinette rolled over and hugged her pillow. “I know.”


	14. Chapter 14

Adrien was in his bathroom, getting ready for his busy Sunday schedule, when his phone chimed. It was a text from Marinette.

_Can we meet today? I need to tell you something._

Adrien’s knees gave out, and he collapsed to the floor, staring at his phone screen. “I’m going to be a father.”

Plagg flew over. “She told you that in a text?” He hovered lower to read the message. “You don’t know that’s what she wants to say. Maybe it’s something else.”

“Of course it is, Plagg. If it was anything else, she could have just texted or video called me. Even if she took a test and it was negative, she could have pulled me aside at school. If she wants to meet specifically to tell me something, with everything that’s been going on lately, that’s the only thing it can mean. She’s going to tell me that she’s pregnant.”

There was a certain relief to not having that tight little ball of uncertainty in his chest anymore, but it had been immediately replaced with a much bigger ball made up of a bunch of worries. What would his father say? What would _her_ father say? Would Marinette decide to hate him after all? Would she tell him that she was only informing him as a courtesy but didn’t want him to have any involvement? And did the idea of that make him feel relieved or disappointed?

Adrien leaned against the bathroom wall. “I’m gonna be a father,” he repeated, trying to wrap his mind around the idea. “Marinette’s . . . having my baby.” Why did it have to be her, and why now? He wanted kids, sure, but not until he was grown up and married—preferably to Ladybug. And he’d had years ahead of him to get all that lined up the way he wanted. Years to convince Ladybug to be the one he had that future with. But Hawk Moth had taken all that from him. How much more could Hawk Moth possibly take from him?

He imagined Hawk Moth demanding his firstborn like some kind of fairy tale villain, insisting that since the child existed because of him, he had a claim on it. The thought made Adrien’s fist clench in anger, even though he knew it would never happen. But then, he never would have thought this would have happened either.

Marinette was waiting for a response. With shaking fingers, Adrien typed out, _Sure. When and where?_

#

Adrien was surprised that Marinette wanted to meet him at the restaurant of The Grand Paris hotel. He was even more surprised to find Nino lurking outside the entrance when he arrived a little after three p.m.

“Nino?”

Nino jumped and spun toward him. “Adrien!”

One look at Nino’s expression was all it took for Adrien to understand. “Alya asked you to meet her here, didn’t she?”

“Yeah. When I peeked in and saw Marinette with her, I figured I’d wait for you before going in because I did not want to sit there and make awkward conversation until you showed up.”

The meeting place made more sense now. If Marinette and Alya wanted to do this together so they didn’t have to do it alone, Alya must have chosen the restaurant where her mom was head chef because it was somewhat neutral ground and there was something reassuring about her mom being close, even if it was also where Chloe lived. Adrien didn’t blame Marinette at all for wanting her best friend here; he was glad it meant he had Nino with him. Besides, the four of them had been together when this whole thing had started. It made sense that they’d be together for this, too.

“You know what they’re going to tell us, right?”

Nino hung his head. “Yeah.”

“Well, then.” Adrien patted him on the shoulder. “Let’s not keep them waiting.”

They strolled into the restaurant and toward the back booth where Marinette and Alya were waiting for them. Adrien smiled as he walked over, trying his best to pretend this was nothing but a casual meeting and he had no idea what Marinette wanted to talk to him about.

“Hi, Marinette. Hi, Alya,” he said when he and Nino reached the booth. Alya was in the spot beside the wall, with Marinette next to her on the aisle, so he waited to let Nino slide in first on their side.

“Hey, dudes. Uh, dudettes,” Nino said as he slid in, eyes darting up to the two girls for just a second.

“Hey, guys,” Alya said only a little uncomfortably.

Marinette didn’t look up from the table. “H-hi, Adrien. Th-thanks for coming. I mean—thanks for arriving. I mean, thanks for, uh, b-being here.”

Adrien sat down beside Nino, across from Marinette. His stomach was fluttering like crazy, and he had to shove his hands into his lap so the girls wouldn’t see them shaking.

Alya looked over to him. “We weren’t sure you’d be able to make it on short notice.”

“I did have to rearrange my schedule a little, but it wasn’t a problem.” All he’d had to tell Nathalie was that Marinette wanted to talk to him, and she’d taken care of it without further discussion.

A tall, thin waitress in a crisp uniform appeared at their table and handed them menus. “Good afternoon. Chef Césaire has informed me that your meals will be on the house. I will return when you’re ready to order.”

Nino clutched his menu and gave Alya a terrified, bug-eyed look. “Your mom’s here?”

“Yes, Nino,” she replied, opening her menu to peruse the contents. “It’s fine.”

None of them said anything as they read their menus for a really long time. Way longer than it actually took to read a menu and make a decision.

Eventually, the waitress came back over and asked, “Are you ready to order?”

Adrien’s stomach still felt like the very concept of food was offensive, but he handed her his menu and ordered the braised duck with asparagus. The other three ordered, and the waitress went away.

A solid minute passed, and none of them said anything or even looked each other in the eye.

“So, uh . . .” Adrien tried, “what did you want to tell me, Marinette?”

Her eyes were glued on the table, her arms and shoulders so tight she must have been clenching her hands in her lap. Her face turned red. “I . . . I, uh . . .”

_Should I just tell her I know?_ Adrien wondered. “What is it? Whatever it is, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“I . . . I . . .” She looked at Alya, who gave her a small, encouraging nod, then met Adrien’s eyes for only an instant before going back to the table. “I need to tell you . . . There’s a thing . . . It’s kind of . . .”

This was becoming torture for both of them. Adrien reached a hand toward her. “It’s okay, Marinette. You don’t have to—”

Marinette squeezed her eyes shut and shouted, “You put a baby in me!”

Adrien froze in the middle of reaching across to reassure her. He stared in shock at Marinette, whose blue eyes were suddenly wide and locked with his. Adrien could sense Alya and Nino gone stiff beside them.

The waitress tripped right in front of their booth, the tray of water glasses and bread that she held flying to the floor.

Adrien stifled a laugh.

So did Nino.

Then Alya.

Then Marinette.

Adrien and Nino lost control first, their laughter like a spark which set off Alya and then finally Marinette, even through her blushing. Adrien felt the heat in his own face, but he couldn’t stop laughing anyway. As the waitress got up, gave them an irritated look, and walked away, the four of them giggled madly like absolute children.

Once he got some semblance of control over himself, but still half-laughing, Adrien said, “Marinette, don’t ever change.”

Her laughter trickled away, and she looked down shyly. “Is-is that all you have to say?”

“I knew what you needed to tell me as soon as you texted me.”

“Oh. And?”

Before he had to come up with an answer, Nino and Alya came down from their laugh-high enough for Alya to say, “Nino?”

“Yeah?” said Nino.

“You put a baby in me.”

They all started giggling again.

Eventually, the wild, irrational laughter faded, but it left them all smiling and relaxed. Alya and Nino held hands across the table.

“How you doin’ with this?” Nino asked.

“I’m really freaking out,” Alya answered.

“Me, too. You know I’m here for you, right?”

“You sure?”

“Of course, Alya. All the way.”

Those two were so perfect for each other. Adrien was a little jealous.

When he looked across to Marinette, she was busying her hands by lining up her silverware.

“Marinette,” he started, but she didn’t let him continue.

“You-you don’t . . . have to be involved . . .”

Her words jolted him. “You don’t want me involved?”

“No, I do! I just . . . don’t want you to feel like you have to.”

“Why wouldn’t I want to?”

She fiddled with her napkin like she would have been tearing it apart if it weren’t cloth. “You didn’t want this. You didn’t choose to make this happen. I don’t want you to feel like you’re stuck with—”

He put a hand over hers, stopping her fidgeting. “No, I didn’t choose this, but neither did you, and I’m not going to make you go it alone just because I won the anatomical coin flip . . . so to speak.”

Her hand quivered under his, but she didn’t pull away. “So, what . . . what does that mean?”

From the corner of his eye, he saw a woman at a nearby table taking photos of them with her phone. The maître d’ intervened right away, but it was too late. Adrien had glimpsed that same woman taking photos while they were laughing. Which meant this meeting wasn’t going to stay private for long. Hopefully long enough for them to at least finish their lunch, though, if he was lucky.

_Deal with it later_ , he told himself, taking a deep breath to focus on Marinette. “It means I’ll support you however you need me. If you need anything—money or anything else—let me know.”

Now she did pull her hand away. “Adrien, no. I’m not—I’m not that kind of—”

“That kind of what, Marinette? I know I don’t know much about . . . how to help people with this kind of thing. But I’d help you as much as I could even if it weren’t—” It was still so hard to say, but he forced himself to. “Even if the baby weren’t mine. Because you’re my friend and you’re in an impossible situation. The fact that it is mine only gives me all the more reason to help. I want to be there for you, Marinette. I want to be there for . . . for . . . for our baby.”

_I can’t believe I just said those words. How in the world is this really happening?_

But even though Marinette looked like she was really close to crying, she smiled at him. “Our baby?”

He blushed and looked away. “It is, isn’t it?”

“Of course it is!” Her tone was sharp.

“What did I say?” he asked, confused by her sudden shift in mood. “What do you think I meant by that?” He replayed the last few seconds in his head and understood what she might have heard in his words. “I wasn’t trying to—Marinette, I’m not accusing you of anything. I just meant that it _is_ mine, so why shouldn’t I say so?”

She pursed her lips and swiped a hand over her eyes. “Sorry. Sorry. I’m a mess.”

“If you are, you have every right to be. I’m barely holding it together here, so I can’t imagine how confusing and weird and scary this must be for you.”

Marinette nodded in agreement and wiped her eyes some more, sniffling. Adrien hated to see her cry over this, but her sniffling was kind of cute. Like a little mouse.

It was really too bad Ladybug had said she wouldn’t ever give Marinette the Mouse Miraculous again just because he’d seen her identity. Marinette made a pretty great mouse.

“Marinette,” he said, “do you want to know a secret?”

She blinked wetness from her eyes to look at him.

He smiled. “I hope our baby turns out just like you.”

Her mouth fell open, and she blushed again. “Wh-what?”

“Because if it does, it’ll be the most adorable kid in the world.”

She looked away from him, shy again, but shy was better than sad. Alya and Nino laughed and countered that _their_ kid would be the cutest kid ever.

Adrien leaned across the table to lay his hand on Marinette’s shoulder. “I’m serious, Marinette. I’m in this with you a hundred percent. You want me with you at the hospital, I’m there. You need me to go shopping for new clothes with you, I’m there. You need me to come over at midnight to rub your feet or . . . whatever it is pregnant women need . . . I’ll sneak out of my house to be there. Please, let me be there. Let me help you. As your friend, and as this baby’s dad . . .” His throat got tight suddenly, and it was hard to keep talking.

She noticed. “Adrien?”

He swallowed and sat back. “I . . . I just want to be a good dad. Every kid should have a good dad.”

Without warning, Marinette shot from her seat to wrap her arms tight around his shoulders. It was awkward, since he was still sitting and she was leaning down to him from beside the booth, so when he hugged her back, he pulled her over to sit on his lap while she hugged him. She stiffened in surprise, but he squeezed her, pressing his face into her shoulder, and she loosened up and hugged him. Then Nino’s arm was around him from the side, and Adrien pressed into him as well. He had a feeling Alya would have joined the hug if she could have found a way in.

Funny how his and Marinette’s plan of not touching each other had kinda gotten thrown out the window today. But he hadn’t had any unwelcome thoughts or memories pop up, so maybe it had been long enough. Even now, as he held her in his lap, he didn’t think of anything lewd at all. More than anything, it actually reminded him of Ladybug hugging him when he’d been so depressed and had so desperately needed a friend.

Adrien would never, ever stop any kid of his from having friends.

“I love you guys so much,” he told the three of them.

Marinette pulled away, and he let go so she could return to her own seat. Had he gone too far and made her uncomfortable? He probably should have been more careful. He did seem to make her uncomfortable sometimes, and since he didn’t know why it happened, he hadn’t been able to figure out how to stop doing whatever it was.

“We love you, too, dude,” said Nino.

“We sure do, Adrien,” said Alya. “Right, Marinette?”

“Of course I love you. _We_ love you. We all love Adrien.”

Yeah, he’d made her uncomfortable. He’d definitely have to work harder on that now. “Thanks, guys.”

“And we’re all in this together,” Alya said. “All four of us. Right?”

“Right,” said Marinette.

“Well,” said Nino, “it’s a little more than the four of us.”

Alya and Marinette gave him questioning looks.

“Us guys had a talk the other day,” Adrien explained. “All of us—even Ivan and Max—promised that we’re all a team in all of this. Everyone’ll be there to help each other, no matter who needs it.”

Alya propped her chin in her hand. “You guys figured this out days ago, did you?”

Adrien shrugged. “We knew we’d hear one way or another from you girls eventually. We wanted to get on the same page. Do you mean the girls didn’t do the same thing?”

“Promise to help each other?” Alya asked. “Not really. We didn’t need to. We all already know we’ll do that. Except Sabrina and Chloe.”

“Although we’ve been trying with them,” Marinette added. “But Chloe’s being stubborn.”

Adrien sighed. “Yeah, that’s Chloe for you.” He would have to try to talk to her.

“Chloe Bourgeois?” asked a strange voice. The busboy who’d been cleaning up the spilled water and bread so quietly and efficiently that Adrien had barely even noticed him looked up from his work but stayed kneeling on the floor.

“Yes,” said Adrien, a little confused.

“You guys know Miss Bourgeois?”

“Yeah,” Alya said, not sounding terribly enthusiastic about it. “But we just call her Chloe.”

The busboy’s eyes lit up. “Then you must be her friends.”

Forestalling any uncomfortable explanations from the others, Adrien said, “Chloe and I have been friends since we were little.”

“Oh.” The busboy nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

_Okay, weird response._ “It does?”

“You’re Adrien Agreste, right? The famous model? I makes sense that Miss Bourgeois would have amazing friends like you.”

“Adrien is _not_ amazing,” Marinette said, giving the busboy a dirty look. “Wait, no. He _is_ amazing, but not because he’s famous. No, wait.” Her eyes flicked from the busboy to Adrien, and she got even more flustered. “He’s normazing. Amazorl. He’s norl—”

“Marinette, it’s okay,” Adrien said. Ordinarily, he’d let her work it out of her system, but he was curious who this guy was. “Sorry about her,” he told the busboy. “Marinette gets tongue-tied sometimes.”

“I bet a lot of girls get tongue-tied around you,” the busboy said in an understanding tone.

“Not really. Why would they?”

“Do you know Chloe?” Alya asked the busboy.

He shot a quick look around the restaurant, which was about half-full, then went back to his work. But he answered without looking up. “I can’t really talk about it here. But can you tell me . . . how she is?”

“Sorry,” Adrien said, “but who are you?”

“My name’s Pierre. I work here.” He winced and muttered, “Obviously,” before continuing quietly. “I—”

The waitress reappeared almost by magic, with a fresh tray of bread and water glasses which she set on the table. “My apologizes for the mess. We’ll have it cleaned up in a moment.” She glanced at Pierre in a way that showed barely any emotion but still managed to convey, _Hurry up._ “Can I get you anything else?”

“Not right now, thanks,” said Alya.

“Your food will be out shortly,” the waitress said, then left.

Pierre had nearly gotten everything cleaned up, and he didn’t risk looking at them again. Surreptitiously, he took a scrap of paper and pen from his apron, wrote something down, and slid it onto the table. “I’m worried about her. I’d really appreciate it if one of you could let me know how she is.”

Before any of them could answer, he hurried efficiently away.

Marinette was the one to swipe the scrap of paper and put it in her pocket.

“Are you gonna contact him?” Adrien asked.

“Yeah, I think so,” she said.

“If you meet up to talk to him or anything, you should probably take me with you. As Chloe’s friend.”

“Okay,” she squeaked. Her phone dinged. She pulled it out, checked the screen, and her expression turned to surprise.

Adrien sighed. So much for at least getting to eat their lunch. “Which website is it?”

“How did you know?” she asked.

Alya checked Marinette’s phone, then pulled out her own and started angrily searching.

Adrien nodded to the side. “There’s a woman over there who’s been taking pictures of us the whole time.

“Oh, Adrien, I’m so sorry!” Marinette gasped. “We shouldn’t have come here! I didn’t think!”

“It’s all right. You have no reason to think about that kind of thing. _I’m_ sorry for being so conspicuous. I should have suggested somewhere else.” He signaled the waitress over and asked, “Can we get our food to go? I’m afraid my fans might find me here soon.”

With quick, sharp glances, the waitress took in the girls looking at their phones, then cut a glare toward the woman who’d been taking the photos. “Of course,” she told him. “I apologize for allowing such intrusion into your meal. If it weren’t already on the house, we would say there was no charge, but—”

“It’s okay,” Adrien assured her. “But . . . maybe we can go out the back way?”

“Of course.”

Once the waitress left, Marinette repeated, “I’m so sorry!”

Adrien chuckled sadly, watching the maître d’ order the photographing woman to leave. “It was bound to happen sooner or later. And it’ll keep happening. I’m so sorry. This is hard enough for you without you having to deal with paparazzi just because you got stuck in this mess with me.”

“There are a lot worse people I could have gotten stuck in it with,” she replied, so quietly he wasn’t sure if he’d been meant to hear it.

She was right, though. He could imagine a whole lot of girls who would have been a whole lot worse to get stuck in this mess with.

The waitress brought a bag with their food just as the first couple teens showed up in full fangirl mode outside. Except instead of their usual excitement, they looked pretty angry. The doormen held them back, and the waitress escorted Adrien and the others to the back entrance. He called his bodyguard on the way so that the car was ready to pick them up as soon as they got outside.

They drove away, giving his fans the slip.


	15. Chapter 15

The scenery sped by so fast, it was obvious to Marinette that Adrien’s bodyguard knew they were running away from something. Which meant he knew what they were outrunning. Which meant that Adrien’s father knew about it—and had probably heard the news that he was going to be a grandfather from some gossip website.

Marinette groaned into her hands. “I’m so sorry.” It was so stupid of her to agree to Alya’s suggested meeting place. Sure, going to any of their houses would have been weird, and being out in public at a park or something felt too open, but the restaurant hadn’t turned out any better. It was so easy to forget that she wasn’t the only person who tracked Adrien’s every move and was basically obsessed with him.

“Marinette, it’s not your fault,” he said from the front seat. “This is just my life. The more you apologize, the worse I feel for dragging you into it.”

“Sorry,” she muttered. She was even bad at apologizing to him.

Alya knocked on Marinette’s forehead like it was made of wood. “I’m gonna break in here before Marinette falls into an endless loop of apologizing for apologizing. Where are we going?”

“We should find a place to eat before the food gets cold,” said Nino.

“What about my house?” Marinette offered without thinking.

From what she could see past Alya, Nino didn’t look thrilled with the idea. And Adrien said, “No offense, Marinette, but I don’t think I’m ready to face your parents yet.”

“Face? But you didn’t do anything wrong!”

“I’m not sure they’ll see it that way.”

“No, they’re really supportive! They’re not angry at all!”

“Of course they’re not angry at you,” said Adrien. “Of course they’ll support you. They’re great parents, and you’re their daughter. But I’m the guy who got their daughter pregnant.”

“It’s not like that!” she protested. At least, she hoped it wasn’t. When she’d seen her dad in the living room the day after she’d found out, he’d been as cheerful as ever, talking about how much fun it would be to have two little babies around and how she’d be a great mom and . . . Yeah, that probably wasn’t the only thing he was really feeling. He was probably putting on a good front and looking on the bright side. She didn’t actually know how he’d treat Adrien the next time he saw him. She scowled at the thought. “It wasn’t you. It was Hawk Moth who got me pregnant.” Alya and Nino gave her disgusted looks, and she realized too late what she’d just said. “Ew! Ew! No! You know what I mean!”

“I do,” Adrien said in a dark tone. “And I _will_ have to see your parents again soon. But not right now. Besides, I don’t think where we go is actually our choice at the moment.”

Confused, Marinette looked out the window and recognized one of the streets leading to Adrien’s house. “Wait! Why isn’t your driver taking us home? Or—or somewhere else?”

“Maybe he’s just dropping me off and then he’ll take you guys home?” Adrien said hopefully.

Marinette hoped he was right. As usual, his bodyguard said nothing.

In a couple minutes, they pulled through the gates to Adrien’s yard. Adrien got out, and his bodyguard followed. That was probably not a good sign. Sure enough, the hulking man opened the door Marinette was leaning against and jerked his head to indicate she should exit the vehicle.

“No, I’m good,” she tried. “I don’t need to go in. You can just take me home and—”

The bodyguard reached in, crowding Marinette’s space, and unfastened her seat belt before picking her up and placing her on the ground. When Alya tried to follow, he shut the door, shaking his head at her and Nino through the window. They gave her sympathetic looks but didn’t try again to leave. Then the bodyguard got back into the car and drove them away.

Leaving Marinette and Adrien alone in his yard with only one place to go. Nathalie was already standing in the front doorway, waiting.

Marinette shot Adrien a desperate look. “You can’t face my parents but I have to face yours?!”

He shook his head sadly. “I’m sorry about this. I wish Father had waited a little while. Do you want to run away?”

Running away with Adrien sure sounded like a good idea, but he probably didn’t mean it in the ‘go to another country and elope’ way that her imagination immediately painted for her. If she wasn’t going to leave it all behind, she needed to face Adrien’s father sooner or later, and putting it off would only put him in a worse mood. “No,” she said reluctantly.

Adrien held his hand out to her. “No matter what, I’m with you. I don’t like going against him when I don’t have to, but sometimes, I have to. If he tries to sweep all this under the rug or force me to cut off contact with you, I won’t let him. That is . . . if you’re sure you still want to let me be involved.”

The nervous hope in his gorgeous green eyes nearly broke her heart. She took his hand tightly in hers, her heart beating faster even though she knew he meant it as a show of solidarity, not of love. “Of course, Adrien.”

He nodded firmly. “Good. Then we can do this.”

As soon as they went up the stairs and stepped into the foyer, Nathalie said, “Adrien, your father wants you to go to your room while he speaks to Miss Dupain-Cheng.”

“I’m sorry, Nathalie,” he replied, “but tell Father that I’m not going to do that. I know he must have heard about Marinette’s pregnancy, so if he has anything to say to her about it, he can say it to me, too.”

Without any visible reaction, Nathalie nodded and walked off through the left-hand doorway.

“What could he want to talk to me about?” Marinette whispered.

“If I had to guess, I’d say it probably has to do with my public image.”

“Your—your image?”

He let out a breath. “My image is important for the Gabriel brand. If Father can’t make this whole thing go away—and he can’t—then he’ll probably look for a way to spin it that maintains my squeaky clean image.”

“So if I want to get on his good side, all I have to do is convince him that being a teen parent is in line with a wholesome public image.” Marinette puckered her mouth in thought.

Adrien smirked wryly. “Yep, that’s all.”

It really wasn’t as hard as he was making it sound. Marinette just wasn’t sure she had the nerve to say the right things in front of Adrien—who made her brain go haywire—and his father—who was possibly the most intimidating person Marinette knew.

She released Adrien’s hand and pulled herself up straighter. If she could personally face down Hawk Moth, she could face Gabriel Agreste, no matter how intimidating he was. She just wished she could transform to do this. It was always so much easier to be confident and firm when she was Ladybug.

#

When Nathalie led Adrien and the Marinette girl into the room, Gabriel was standing at his workstation, which had several windows up on the screen. All of them showed photos, videos, or quoted text making it clear to the entire world that Adrien was engaged in an inappropriate relationship with his classmate. Reporters were already speculating on this salacious bit of gossip. A few busybodies on social media were tossing around vague threats of boycotting the Gabriel brand.

Gabriel Agreste was not happy.

He glared down at the two teenagers. Neither of them averted their gaze from his, which irritated him.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” he said, ignoring his son for the time being, “are you _trying_ to destroy my livelihood?”

That caught the girl off guard. “Wh-what? No! What?”

“You lure my son to a public place and then shout about being pregnant with his child. Do you really expect me to believe that wasn’t intentional sabotage?”

She paled slightly. “I—I didn’t—No, I didn’t mean to—”

“Father, Marinette didn’t _lure_ me anywhere.” Adrien took a step forward as if to protect her. “She asked me to go there, and I did. She was just nervous, and that’s why she spoke so loudly. Marinette would never do anything to deliberately harm your company.”

“That’s right!” Marinette nodded fervently. “I love your work! I think you’re an amazing designer! I wouldn’t want to do anything to hurt your business—or Adrien!”

Gabriel believed her. She was naïve and sincere, just like his son. And as reckless as Adrien often was, too. Or maybe all teenagers were. “And yet,” he replied, “your rash behavior has disrupted my plans for handling this situation. Was it too much to ask that you would give him the news with a little more discretion?”

Adrien leapt to her defense again. “She handled it as well as she could! You have no idea what she’s going through right now!”

“Wait. Mr. Agreste . . . you knew?” the girl asked.

“I very strongly suspected,” he corrected. “As anyone might have, if they’d been paying any attention at all.”

Adrien looked ready to yell again, but Marinette, surprisingly, appeared to think about what he said. “What do you mean?”

He pulled up the relevant video clip on his workstation, then beckoned them over, standing behind the two of them as it played.

It was news footage of Fairy Grandmother. She was floating down the street, many of the other figures on screen pixelated out. Her voice was unclear at first, but as she got closer, it became comprehensible.

“She says she doesn’t want kids! I know what she really wants! To have her fun and toys and never grow up! To be a child forever herself!”

The hazy gas reached the camera, and the picture jerked, then the camera crashed to the ground. The picture went out, but the audio continued. Behind a variety of other noises, Fairy Grandmother’s voice could still be heard.

“She needs to grow up and give me a grandchild! This whole generation needs to grow up and stop being so selfish! I’ll make you all realize how delightful babies are!”

Fairy Grandmother went on in that vein for a while, her voice fading in and out under a chorus of crashes and increasingly obscene other voices.

Gabriel paused the video.

“I haven’t seen that,” Marinette murmured.

“Babies,” Adrien breathed. “That’s what it was about the whole time.”

“It certainly appears so,” Gabriel said.

They stepped away from his workstation and faced him. “That’s why it’s affecting everyone,” Marinette said, “even women who shouldn’t have been likely to get pregnant at that time. It was part of the magic gas’s effect.”

“But why didn’t the magic Ladybugs do anything to fix it?” Adrien asked.

Gabriel had considered that question. “Maybe she waited too long. Maybe those effects were too far outside the realm of what her powers were intended to handle.”

“Or maybe,” suggested Marinette, “the fact that the Ladybug powers are the power of creation mean that they didn’t register it as anything that should have been fixed.”

Gabriel nodded, slightly impressed. “Or that. It doesn’t really matter now, though. What’s done is done.”

“But what if Hawk Moth tries something like that again?” Adrien asked. “Wouldn’t—well, wouldn’t Ladybug at least want to know why her power didn’t work completely?”

“I doubt Hawk Moth will repeat that particular tactic again,” Gabriel said. “It was a failure, after all.”

Adrien did seem a bit reassured by that. Gabriel would have liked to give him more certainty about it, but while there would likely come a proper time for telling Adrien about his plans, this was certainly not it.

Clasping his hands behind his back, Gabriel strolled away to once again put some distance between himself and the teens. “Expecting that this would be how things went, I have been putting together a plan to keep the information from spreading and damaging Adrien’s reputation and the image of my company. A plan which is now ruined thanks to your haphazard and ill-considered revelation.” He shot Marinette a glare, and she flinched.

As he had before, Adrien defended her. “It wasn’t Marinette’s fault. She—”

“But what’s done is done,” Gabriel interrupted him, “and so the plan must change. Perhaps if Marinette could tell the press that she was only trying to use the situation to gain some advantage over Adrien by publicly accusing him and it’s really some other boy who’s the father.”

“No!” Adrien stepped in front of Marinette, his fists clenched at his sides. “That’s not happening. Besides, the story would fall apart as soon as people saw me helping her with her pregnancy.”

Gabriel stopped pacing and eyed his son. “Helping her in what way?”

“Any way she needs. I already told her I’d do whatever she needed, and I plan to stand by that.”

“Son, be reasonable. Even if there’s not much you can do during the actual pregnancy, do you plan to also help her with the child once it’s born?”

Adrien blinked in surprise. Had he honestly not thought that far ahead? After only a second’s thought, his face once again set in determination. “I’ll do whatever I need to do. Whatever Marinette needs me to do.”

Gabriel shook his head. “Your schedule is already full. You have no idea what adding even occasional childcare will do to it. And do you honestly believe that you, at fourteen, have any of what it takes to be an actual father?”

Adrien faltered, his conviction failing him. “I . . . I don’t know.”

Marinette stepped up to Adrien’s side. “Of course he does! At least, a-as much as I have to be a mother.”

Gabriel made a skeptical hum in her direction. “You raise a good point. You are no more qualified to parent a child—to parent _my_ grandchild—than he is. So, I’ll make you the same offer I made Nathalie.” He saw Adrien’s jerk of surprise and ignored it. “When the child is born, you may choose to keep it or turn it over to me.” Marinette gasped, and he ignored that, too. “If you keep it, we will provide funds to assist in caring for it and offer occasional help with any issues which might be solved with a phone call to the right person, but we cannot offer any actual personal assistance.” He met Adrien’s eyes for long enough to know that his son understood that he was included in ‘us’. “If you choose to give the child to me, you will have full visitation rights, but nothing will be expected of you, and you will be able to move on with your life unencumbered, knowing that your child will get the best care money can buy.”

The confidence and solidarity which the two teens had been able to make a show of had faded entirely. Both were silently processing Gabriel’s words, hopefully working it out to see that he was right.

Rather than addressing the issue, Adrien said, “Nathalie’s pregnant?”

“She is,” Gabriel confirmed.

“From the . . . the same incident?”

Gabriel nodded.

“I’m going to have a sibling?”

Gabriel’s anger flared. How could he say it that way, as if Emilie were nothing? “ _Half_ -sibling. And only if she decides to give the child to me.”

“It’ll be my half-sibling whether it lives here or not. But why wouldn’t you . . .” He trailed off, apparently thinking better of asking.

“Why wouldn’t I what?” Gabriel challenged.

“Why wouldn’t you want to be with Nathalie? I know she’s important to you. We could be a real family instead of—”

Gabriel’s anger had spiked so high after Adrien’s first question, it took him several seconds to formulate words. “Your _mother_ is your family! Emilie and you and I are a family! Have you forgotten that?”

Adrien stepped back from Gabriel’s outburst. “Of course not, Father. But Mom’s . . .”

Gabriel spun on his heel and strode several more paces away, trying to calm himself. “We will not discuss that matter further.”

When he turned back to look at his son from the other side of the depression in the center of the room, Adrien appeared suitably subdued. “Has Nathalie told you what she plans to do?” Adrien asked.

“Not yet.”

His head drooping, Adrien looked over to Marinette, who hadn’t given any kind of answer yet to Gabriel’s offer. “What about you, Marinette? Do you . . . want to take Father’s offer?”

Marinette’s hand rested on her belly, and she watched her fingers slowly stroke the spot as if it were big enough to feel anything. In a quiet voice, she said, “No.”

Adrien let out a breath. Was that relief? If so, did it mean Adrien was glad he would only need to contribute funding—something which Nathalie or Gabriel would be able to see to on his behalf? Perhaps he’d seen some sense after all.

Gabriel approached them. “The offer will remain on the table until the child is born. Until then, you can still change your mind. In the mean time, we will offer whatever financial support you require. However, in return, you must assist in repairing the damage you’ve done to Adrien’s public image.”

Even though she was significantly shorter than him, the fierceness in Marinette’s eyes when she looked up at Gabriel almost impressed him. “I won’t lie and tell people this baby isn’t Adrien’s. This baby is going to know who its father is, and it won’t have to hide that fact.”

“Then you’ve already reconsidered my offer?”

“What? No!”

“If you mean to keep the child, there is no reason for the public to know it’s his. Not when he won’t have any reason to be seen with you or it.”

Adrien scowled. “I told you I’m helping Marinette. I’m not changing my mind on that.”

So much for seeing sense. “I don’t remember giving you that option,” Gabriel reminded him.

The rebellious expression Gabriel hated was back in force. “I don’t need your permission to be a parent to my own kid.”

Gabriel leaned in, looming with all his height. “As long as you’re my son, you do!”

“Mr. Agreste,” Marinette said, “I have an idea for how to deal with Adrien’s public image issue. One which will also let him be involved with . . . uh, with all of this.”

Setting aside the escalating argument with his son for the moment, Gabriel raised an eyebrow at the girl. “Oh?”

“Why not just tell the truth?”

“Excuse me?”

In an irritatingly flippant tone, she explained. “Have Adrien make a statement saying he was caught in Fairy Grandmother’s attack with me and that’s how this happened. There are a whole lot of other people in Paris going through the same thing right now, so it’s not like it’s unbelievable. It might even humanize him, make the average person feel like he’s dealing with the same problems they are, which could increase his popularity. Everyone knows no one was able to resist Fairy Grandmother’s gas, so he’d gain sympathy, too, since he was the victim of a supervillain, not some teen with bad morals. Then the fact that he’s being so supportive and responsible, even though there are a lot of guys who would totally take the ‘not my fault’ excuse to leave the girl handling everything herself. It would probably increase his popularity when everyone saw what a great, responsible guy he is. Plus, getting his story out there might even encourage other guys in the same situation to do their part for the girls they got caught by the gas with. So you could spin this whole thing in a way that not only benefits Adrien and your company but other people, too.” She smiled, clearly proud of her reasoning.

And she did make some good points. Gabriel had not considered the viability of simply telling the truth, but in this case, he saw how it could in fact work to their advantage. It would mean a greater demand on Adrien’s time, but if it worked out the way Marinette predicted, the good press could be worth it. It would also mean blaming himself—Hawk Moth—for all the trouble, but the entire city saw him as a villain already, so he was used to that. And if it really did lead to some greater good for the city at large after his blunder, he had nothing against that.

“You are a reasonably clever girl,” Gabriel told her. “At least my grandchild shouldn’t be a total idiot.” Her expression—and Adrien’s—shifted as they tried to decide if Gabriel had insulted or complimented her. He smirked. “We’ll try it your way.”


	16. Chapter 16

Adrien was allowed to walk Marinette as far as the car but not to ride home with her. Which was fine with him, since riding home with her would mean going to her house, and Adrien was pretty terrified of her father right at the moment.

“You were great in there,” he told her as they walked out.

“No, you! You were! Thanks for stickfending for me. I mean, defend—uh, sticking up for me.”

“I said I would.” He put an arm around her shoulders as they walked to give her a quick side hug. They reached the car, where his bodyguard was already standing with the back door open for her, but she didn’t get in right away. So, because he really wanted to say something about this to someone and his bodyguard wouldn’t say anything back and Plagg would probably just say something jokey, Adrien said, “I can’t believe Nathalie’s pregnant. I’m going to have a sibling.”

Marinette gave him an uncertain smile. “So am I.”

“Really? So, your parents . . .” He hadn’t heard of any . . . uh, pairings up . . . that weren’t between single people or already established couples, but that didn’t necessarily mean it hadn’t happened.

But Marinette didn’t seem to pick up on what he was trying uncomfortably to clarify. “Yeah, they got caught in the gas, too. Honestly, as much as I don’t want to hear about it, it’s nice to know that they understand how mind-controlled we all were. And, as weird as it is, I think it’ll help not going through this whole pregnancy thing alone. My mom and my best friend will both be going through it along with me. And Mom’s obviously already done it once, so she’ll know what I should do and what I should look out for and . . .” She shook her head. “It’s just so much . . . so much everything.”

“I know. But we’re a team. All of us together. Even my dad, I think. In his own way.”

Nathalie called Adrien’s name from the doorway and told him to hurry up, so he said goodnight to Marinette and went back inside.

When he reached Nathalie, he paused and told her, “No matter what, I’ll do my best to be a good big brother.”

She smiled. “Thank you, Adrien.”

#

Later that evening, Marinette was in her room making some design sketches when Adrien’s video was posted. She stopped everything to get on her computer and watch it.

It was nothing fancy, just Adrien in front of a plain background, looking a little nervous but as gorgeous as ever. She sighed and gazed into his beautiful green eyes as he spoke into camera.

“Hi, everyone. I’m Adrien Agreste. There have been some reports and rumors about me circulating on the internet today, so I wanted to post this video to clear things up. A couple weeks ago, Hawk Moth set a supervillain called Fairy Grandmother loose on Paris. As most of you probably remember, she filled the city with a gas that made people who came in contact with it either zone out for a while or . . .” He rubbed the back of his head as his cheeks turned pink. “Well, if you weren’t there or haven’t seen it on the news yet, you can look it up. None of us had control over what we did under the gas’s mind-control, and we can’t even remember it. But if you’ve been paying attention to the news for the past week, you should know that Fairy Grandmother’s attack has resulted in some . . . pregnancies. So, yes, the rumors about a girl being pregnant with my baby are true, but that’s what happened. She’s just a friend who I happened to be hanging out with at the time of the attack, and the mind-control gas made us do something we never would have otherwise. It really, really freaked us both out, and . . . well, it’s the kind of thing I’m not sure you ever really get over. And now this is happening. So I want to ask my fans and reporters, please leave her alone. She’s not my girlfriend—but she is an awesome girl and a great friend. She didn’t do anything to choose this, and neither did I. She doesn’t deserve to have what Hawk Moth did to her—to both of us—made worse by getting hounded just because she happened to have been hanging out with me at that moment. I’m going to help her with the pregnancy and the baby in any way I can, even though . . . well, neither of us have any idea what we’re getting into. We’re only fourteen. This kind of thing was supposed to be years away still. But because of Hawk Moth, we’re having to deal with it now. I know we’re not the only ones. Some of my friends are, too, and I know a lot of you out there are as well. Many of you are probably young like we are, and you’re scared and unsure about what to do. So I really hope that all of us can pull together and support each other, whether you’re a guy or girl who got caught by the gas, or whether you weren’t but your friend or family member or classmate was. Fairy Grandmother’s attack was a lot bigger deal than we knew at first, and it was already a pretty big deal. But I know that together, my friends and I are strong enough to face it. Together, all Parisians are strong enough to face it. So let’s support each other and show Hawk Moth that our resolve, our spirits, and our friendships won’t be broken so easily. Thank you.”

Marinette sighed again. “He’s amazing, Tikki.”

Her kwami friend floated near her shoulder. “That was a pretty good speech, especially the part about pulling together and not letting Hawk Moth win. Do you think people will?”

“I do. This city’s pulled together against Hawk Moth before.”

Tikki came around to face Marinette. “Adrien was really adamant about supporting you, even when it meant defying his father.”

Marinette couldn’t help grinning at the reminder. “He was. It really helps, knowing he wants to be a part of this. Do you think maybe having a baby together will make him fall in love with me? Or maybe once the baby’s born, he’ll see what a good mother I am and he’ll fall in love with me then.”

The expression on her kwami’s face was more sympathy and ‘I have bad news’ than the eager encouragement she was hoping for. “You really shouldn’t get your hopes up for that, Marinette. I’m not saying it’s never happened before, but usually . . . that’s not really how love works. And you’ve already got so many great qualities, Marinette. Even Adrien said you’re awesome, so he can see them, even if it doesn’t make him love you. One day, someone—maybe Adrien or maybe another boy—will fall madly in love with you and make you happy. I just know it. You deserve someone who really appreciates you for who you are—for all of you—not just for one or two things, and certainly not just because mind-control and biology gave you a little person to share.”

Hope spiraled briefly into despair before picking up a bit there at the end. Marinette smiled sadly and tried to feel happy. “You’re right, Tikki. I’d just really love for that boy to be Adrien. But you’re right.” She considered a future where Adrien never fell in love with her. “How do people have a child together if they’re not together? Do we trade back and forth every other week? What kind of life is that for a kid, having a mother on odd weeks and a father on even ones? Don’t kids need more stability than that?” The more she thought about it, the more worried she became. It was hard enough thinking about this kid thing when she was only focused on her own problems. When she started to think about what the kid would actually need, the future felt like a black hole of uncertainty and panic.

“Easy there, Marinette,” Tikki said, bumping reassuringly into her cheek. “Let the future worry about itself. You’ve got nine months or so to get ready for actually having a child. You don’t need to figure it all out tonight.”

Marinette took some deep breaths and pushed the thoughts from her mind. “Right. Right. Besides, Mom and Dad are here to help me. They’ll know what to do, even if I don’t.”

“That’s true,” Tikki chirped. “You’re really lucky to have such great parents.”

“I know.”

An akuma alert popped up on the computer screen, and Marinette clicked to open up the breaking news footage. She watched it just long enough to see where the villain was and get an idea what sort they were dealing with, then pushed all her own worries aside and got to work.

#

The purple-black transformation magic dissolved, leaving four teen girls sitting on the pavement.

Cat Noir scratched his head. “Four at once? That’s a new record, isn’t it?”

Ladybug stepped up beside her partner. “If you don’t count the Scarlet Moth akumatizations, I think so.”

One of the deakumatized girls burst into tears. “It’s not fair! Why couldn’t it have been me?”

Ladybug approached carefully. “Um, what exactly was it that upset you four so much?” The four-headed supervillain hadn’t been entirely clear on what its goal was. It had just kept using its claws to grab and tear anything in its path—luckily not including people. In four voices, it had wailed about unrequited love and interlopers. It . . . had not been the most articulate villain they’d ever faced.

The crying girl kept crying, and two others were still trying to get their bearings, but the fourth girl answered Ladybug’s question. “Our idol, Adrien Agreste, has a girlfriend.” She still sounded disappointed, but not like she was in danger of being reakumatized.

Her explanation left Ladybug momentarily at a loss for words. _That_ had been what had gotten these four so upset? “A-actually . . .” she started.

Before she could continue, Cat Noir knelt beside the girl. “Yeah, I saw that video, too. Wasn’t he pretty clear the girl wasn’t his girlfriend?”

The girl nodded reluctantly. “Yeah, but I mean . . .” She trailed off, unable to find an actual argument.

“And didn’t he explicitly ask his fans not to make a big deal about it?” Cat Noir reminded her.

The girl pursed her lips, looking a little bit ashamed, and nodded. “Do you think he’d be mad at us?”

Cat Noir laid a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, sometimes it’s hard to control your emotions when you’re surprised and hurt. As long as you all do your best to do what he asked now, I think he’ll forgive you.”

Ladybug watched the exchange with her mouth hanging open. It was weird to see Cat Noir being the one consoling the akuma victim. He could be surprisingly understanding and gentle.

He helped the girl to her feet. “Can you get your friends home and talk them out of their moods? It’s getting late, and I’d rather not have to face another supervillain tonight.”

The girl held her chin high and managed a smile. “You can count on me, Cat Noir. And so can Adrien.”

He gave her a smile that wasn’t the flirty one he always seemed to default to with girls. Instead, it was kind and grateful . . . and made something tighten just a little inside Ladybug’s belly. “I know we can.”

The girl went over to help her friends up, hugging the one who was crying, as Ladybug and Cat Noir stepped away. Their Miraculouses each gave a beep. They didn’t have much time.

When they were out of earshot of the girls or anyone else, Cat Noir frowned. “Adrien Agreste? Why would anyone get akumatized over him?”

Ladybug scowled, the warmth she’d been feeling toward him dissipating. “What’s wrong with Adrien Agreste?”

He shrugged. “He’s fine, I guess, but nothing worth so getting worked up over. He’s just a model.”

Ladybug’s fists clenched, and she wanted to argue passionately in Adrien’s defense, but doing that would probably be too suspicious. “You watched his video, though.”

Cat Noir shrugged. “Didn’t everybody? It _was_ a pretty good speech; I’ll give him that. Especially the part about—”

“Everyone pulling together?” Ladybug supplied.

Cat Noir grinned. “He was spot on with that. I couldn’t have said it better myself.”

That mollified Ladybug’s feelings, and the tenseness in her body relaxed. Her earrings beeped. “We’d better go before we transform back.”

An uncertain look crossed Cat Noir’s face, and he opened his mouth to say something before closing it again. He gave her a casual salute and said, “Good night, Milady,” before running away.

As Ladybug swung toward home, she wondered what he’d wanted to say. Given everything that had been happening, the most likely answer was that he wanted to know if she was pregnant, too. She knew she probably ought to tell him, but . . . she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. Not yet. She would have to before too long; it wasn’t something she could hide forever. But she’d just started dealing with the reality of all this as Marinette. She didn’t want to have to deal with everyone’s reactions to Ladybug being pregnant at the same time. It could wait a little while.


	17. Chapter 17

When Adrien walked into class the next morning, he was startled by a sudden round of applause and cheering.

“Uh . . .” he said from the doorway, “what did I do?”

Nino came over and clapped him on the shoulder. “Your video, dude!”

“My—what? That thing?”

Rose clasped her hands together and squealed. “That was super brave of you, Adrien!”

“It was?”

Alya flipped the screen of her phone toward him, but he couldn’t make out what she was trying to show. “You’re the first celebrity to publicly open up about being involved with this whole mess. You took that leaked gossip and turned it right around. Now more people are feeling less embarrassed to admit they’re Fairy Grandmother victims, too, and there’s tons of open support for the victims.”

“Yeah,” Alix said, “you’ve kind of made yourself the face of this whole thing.”

“I did?” Adrien asked. “I didn’t mean to. I just wanted to stop the rumors and try to make sure no one would bother Marinette about it.” As soon as the words were out, he realized he’d just admitted to the whole class that Marinette was pregnant with his baby. Not that they hadn’t obviously put that together, between what he’d said in the video and what they’d already known. But it still felt weird. And like something he maybe should have revealed with Marinette. He shot a look to her, hoping he wouldn’t see anger or embarrassment.

She did look a little embarrassed, but not mortified. When their eyes locked, she smiled nervously. “It was a really good Adrien, video. I mean, good . . . ah . . .”

He laughed in relief. “Um, thanks, everyone.”

Kim stood up. “Yeah, Adrien. Thanks to you, Ondine said it was okay to tell everyone that we’re having a baby, too.”

The girls in the room reacted with surprise and mild horror—presumably at the idea of Kim taking care of a child—though the boys already knew.

“Uh, congratulations,” Mylène offered.

“That kid isn’t going to live to its first birthday.” That was Chloe, of course.

Adrien thought they were all being a little harsh. Kim could be kind of a ditz, but he had a good heart and a lot of determination. A kid could do a lot worse for a dad.

Alix stood and faced Kim as if they were about to throw down or something. “Yeah, well”—she thrust a finger toward Nathaniel—“I got a baby out of this dweeb, too.”

“Alix,” Nathaniel nearly whimpered.

“Sorry, Nath.”

Nathaniel double face-palmed. When he looked up again, everyone’s attention was on him. And so everyone noticed he was sporting two black eyes this morning.

All eyes turned to Alix.

“Uh, yeah, I maybe wasn’t in the best mood when I told him about it. And then Jalil found out.”

Kim crossed his arms at Nathaniel. “At least you’re not dead.”

Adrien was genuinely surprised. Not about Alix. But her brother didn’t seem like the type to get violent like that. Of course, this was an extreme circumstance, and non-violent people could sometimes get violent under extreme circumstances.

He swallowed hard, thinking again of Marinette’s dad. Would it be possible to just never be in the same room with him again?

While people continued to comment about Alix and Nathaniel, Adrien snuck a glance at Chloe. She was pretending to not even be involved in the conversation, staring ahead like she just wanted class to start.

When things quieted down a little, Miss Bustier said, “Since you’ve all shared your news, I might as well share mine, as well.”

“You’re pregnant?” Rose asked in delight. She was reacting with delight about all of this, as if it was nothing but good news. Would she be reacting any differently if she’d been caught in it, too?

Miss Bustier nodded with a calm smile. Adrien wondered how calm she really was about it, but he knew she’d never show her students anything different. “The details have yet to be worked out, but the school will be making accommodations to assist pregnant students and staff, as well as some form of assistance once the babies are born. Obviously, this is not typical, but given the situation, the school board has already approved the motion.”

Adrien wondered if he could get his father to make a donation to the school to help with whatever accommodations they came up with.

By lunchtime, Chloe still hadn’t said a word about how she might have been affected by Fairy Grandmother’s attack, though any time someone made any reference to the issue, Sabrina glanced at her with worry and expectation.

When they broke for lunch, Adrien caught up with Marinette in the courtyard and leaned in to say quietly, “Have you contacted Pierre yet?”

Marinette’s face was pink all of a sudden, though Adrien couldn’t figure out why. He hadn’t said anything embarrassing. He hadn’t even touched her. She leaned away from him. “Not yet.”

He frowned. Was she uncomfortable with him getting close to her? But she was fine hugging him and holding his hand yesterday? He just couldn’t get a read on how Marinette actually felt about him, and it was . . . confusing and disheartening. “If you do, don’t forget I’d like to talk to him, too.”

“Sure thing!” Marinette said before scurrying off toward the locker room.

As he stared after her, Nino came up beside him. “Whatcha looking at, bud?”

“I just don’t get her. She said she doesn’t hate me, and sometimes she seems fine with me, but then other times she flinches or runs away from me like that.”

Nino laughed.

Adrien scowled at him. “What?”

“Nothing,” Nino said. “Girls are just weird, dude.”

Although he agreed, Adrien didn’t see anything funny about it. “You know what, Nino? Sometimes I think boys are weird, too.”

“You might be right about that.”

#

“Thank you so much for talking to me.” Pierre’s voice was soft, but the booth in the fast food restaurant where Marinette had met him wasn’t very big. The place was a little busy with the post-school snack rush, though, so he leaned toward her as he spoke. Funny how any other boy leaning at her didn’t bother her; only the guy she most wanted to be close to. Why couldn’t her body just react in a way that made sense with her true feelings? She was so jealous of Cat Noir and how easy it was for him to express himself toward her, even if she found his flirting and advances annoying. Not that he’d been doing any of that lately. He’d said he’d stop, and he actually had.

“Don’t start talking yet,” she told him, looking at her phone. “We’re still waiting on someone.” Adrien’s reply to her text had said that he had a photoshoot scheduled after school but would find a way to meet them there anyway. He was five minutes late, and she was starting to wonder if he’d really make it.

Pierre’s eyes grew wide. “It’s not Miss Bourgeois, is it?”

Marinette made a _Pfft!_ sound before she could stop herself. From the way Pierre’s face fell, that had been kind of insensitive. “Sorry. It’s just, Chloe and I aren’t really close. It would take a lot for her to accept an invite from me anywhere.”

“But I thought you two were friends.”

“We’re classmates. Adrien’s the only one of us who’s her friend.”

Pierre seemed to have trouble understanding that, judging by the way his brows furrowed in confusion. It was a cute look on him. He was a pretty good-looking guy—no Adrien, of course—with blond hair cut short, currently worn messier than the slicked-back look he’d worn while working. He was as tall as Kim (but skinnier) and probably a year or two older than them.

Right on cue, a face she’d stared at long enough to recognize in any disguise pushed his way through the queue of people near the register and came straight for their booth. Adrien slid in beside her, taking off his sunglasses but leaving his cap on. “Sorry I’m late.”

“No worries!” she said, smiling too wide. He’d nudged her to the other side of the seat on his way in, and the sides of their legs were still touching. She fought hard to focus on the conversation instead of the heat where they touched.

Adrien reached across to shake the other boy’s hand. “Hello again. Pierre, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Pierre looked momentarily star-struck but recovered quickly. “I saw your video. What you said was really great.”

“Ah. Yeah. Thanks,” Adrien said self-consciously. “So, how do you know Chloe?”

Pierre sighed. “I don’t really _know_ her. She never remembers my name when we bump into each other. Actually, I don’t think she even realizes we have seen each other numerous times.”

Adrien winced a little. “Yeah, Chloe’s . . . not great at paying attention to people she considers beneath her, like employees.”

Pierre nodded sadly. “It’s true. She can’t even remember my uncle’s name, and he’s been her butler for years. But I don’t blame her for it. She’s the mayor’s daughter. Why should she bother paying attention to a nobody like me?”

“You’re not a nobody, Pierre,” Marinette told him firmly. “And you shouldn’t let Chloe let you feel like one.”

“She’s right,” agreed Adrien. “Everybody is somebody worthwhile, no matter what their job is or who their family is.”

One corner of Pierre’s mouth perked up. “You’re a great guy, Mr. Agreste. I can understand why Chloe loves you.”

Adrien blinked. “Loves me? Chloe doesn’t love me. We’re just friends, and she’s just . . . overly affectionate. She’s always been that way.”

Pierre gave Marinette an _I_ _s he serious?_ look. Marinette only rolled her eyes. Adrien’s cluelessness about Chloe’s interest in him—whatever her actual motive for that interest was—wasn’t something Marinette had any desire to correct. The longer Adrien refused to acknowledge Chloe as a potential love interest, the better.

Apparently Pierre agreed with that sentiment, since he made no attempt to set Adrien straight.

“And please don’t call me Mr. Agreste,” Adrien added. “It’s just Adrien.”

Pierre smiled and nodded. “Anyway, I started working at the restaurant a year ago. I’ve been in love with Miss Bourgeois almost as long.”

Marinette had been taking a sip from her drink when he said it, so she did a full-on spit-take at him. “Chloe? You’re in love with Chloe?”

Adrien handed Pierre a napkin, which he used to wipe the water off his face. “Yes. Is that so strange?”

“It’s—it’s Chloe!” Marinette pointed out. “You just said she doesn’t even remember your name.”

Pierre shrugged. “I can’t help it. She’s so beautiful and confident, so good at taking charge.”

“She’s bossy,” Marinette corrected. Suddenly, there was a hand on her knee. A very hot hand.

“Marinette,” Adrien whispered. Reminding her that maybe trashing the person a guy was in love with wasn’t the most sensitive thing she could do.

“Right,” she muttered, and Adrien removed his hand, unfortunately.

“And then she became Queen Bee,” Pierre added with a small sigh, “and she moved even more out of my reach. Maybe one day, if I worked hard, I might be good enough for a mayor’s daughter, but how could I ever live up to a superhero?”

“Superheroes are only people under the mask,” Marinette said.

Adrien nodded. “She’s right. They’re really impressive, but they’re still only people doing a job.”

Pierre gave both of them an _A_ _re you kidding me?_ look but didn’t bother arguing. “I know I have no right to ask since I’m not even someone worth her time to remember, but could you tell me how she’s been doing?”

Marinette leaned in. “Been doing since when?”

Pierre fiddled with the wrapper of a burger he’d half eaten. “Since . . . the Fairy Grandmother attack.”

Adrien let out a long, understanding breath. “What happened?”

Pierre looked at him in surprise. “She didn’t tell you?”

“She’s been telling everyone that nothing happened. That her and Sabrina ran to hide in the pantry and stayed there until it was over.”

“Nothing else?” Pierre asked.

Marinette shook her head. “Even today, when the whole class was sharing . . . uh, news . . . she didn’t say anything about herself.”

“Oh,” Pierre said. “Then . . . I guess I shouldn’t, either. If that’s what Miss Bourgeois wants.”

“Pierre,” said Adrien, “Marinette and I have been thinking that Chloe lied about that. I don’t think we’re the only ones. I’m actually kinda worried about her. If something happened and she’s in denial . . . well, it’s not the kind of thing someone can be in denial about forever.”

Pierre grimaced. “I know, and I’m so sorry. I’ve tried to apologize to her many times, but she won’t speak to me. As soon as she catches sight of me, she flees. I still have my job, so I don’t think she’s told her father or anyone else. The truth is, she and her friend did lock themselves in the pantry. They didn’t realize that I was already in there until the door was locked, and the gas moved so quickly . . .”

“So that’s it,” Marinette murmured. “Chloe got trapped with you, and she’s too embarrassed about doing that with someone she considers a servant to even tell anyone.”

“I suppose so,” Pierre said miserably, clasping his hands together on the table. “But I would do anything for her. Especially if . . . Well, I just wish she’d give me a chance.”

Marinette leaned forward to lay her hand on Pierre’s. “Thank you for telling us. Now that we know what’s happening with her, we can try harder to help her. I may not like her that much, and I _really_ don’t understand why you do, but I’ll do what I can to help all of you work through this.”

“We all will,” Adrien said. “I’m pretty sure Sabrina’s worried about her, but she’s too much under Chloe’s thumb to force the issue. But maybe I can talk to her, as her friend.”

“Really?” Pierre’s spine stiffened with excitement. “You would do that, Mr.—Adrien? I’m sure she would listen to you.”

“I’m . . . not so sure. But I’ll try anyway.”


	18. Chapter 18

The next time Adrien went to fencing practice, he was excited to see a familiar red uniform. He hadn’t seen Kagami in what seemed like a week.

“Kagami!” he called, waving as he ran over to her.

“Hello, Adrien,” she said in her usual stoic way.

“I’m glad to see you.”

“And I, you. How . . . have you been?”

“Pretty good. Well, I’m super busy, as usual, and things have been a little crazy.”

She gave him one curt nod. “I saw your video.”

Suddenly awkward, he rubbed the back of his neck. “Oh, yeah. Seems like everyone has.”

“Is the girl Marinette?” Her tone was even, her face emotionless.

Adrien blinked in surprise. “It . . . is actually. How did you guess?”

Something shifted in her expression, but it was so minor that Adrien couldn’t read what it meant. “Are you going to marry her?”

“What? No, I—She’s just a friend. And we’re way too young, anyway. It’s not like—”

“Never mind. I can see that was an uncomfortable question for you. Are you ready to spar?”

“You bet.” He put on his mask, and they got into position. “En garde!”

The temporary awkwardness of her blunt questions melted away as they sparred. Kagami was his favorite sparring partner. She was so good, she pushed him to be his best, and he always felt like he learned something from every match. But it wasn’t just good practice; it was fun and exhilarating. He didn’t feel that kind of physical rush at any other time when he wasn’t Cat Noir. In some ways, sparring with her felt like the physical version of the verbal sparring he did with Ladybug. It had occurred to him a time or two that if he weren’t in love with Ladybug, he might consider being interested in Kagami. What could he say? He liked a girl who kept him on his toes.

When practice ended, they were both sweaty and panting hard. He whipped off his mask and beamed at her. “Good match.”

She removed her own mask and tucked it under her arm, giving him a small bow. “Thank you for the practice, Adrien.”

They all went to the locker room to get their things, but Adrien hung back as most of the group left. Kagami was sitting on a bench, checking her phone. Only now that the rush of exercise had run down did he notice that she’d been a bit off all day. Not in her skills, but her attitude had seemed just a little more distant than usual. “Hey, Kagami, are you okay?”

She looked up at him. “Yes, Adrien. Thank you for asking.”

He sat on the bench beside her. “Not to be pushy, but I don’t really believe you. If there’s something bothering you, you can talk to me. If you want to.”

Her expression didn’t change, but he saw her hand clench around her phone. “You . . . don’t need to concern yourself.”

“You’re my friend. Does it have to do with why you missed a couple practices?”

Air slowly whooshed out of her, and her shoulders slumped. “Yes.”

He placed a hand on her shoulder. “You don’t have to tell me about it, but if you want to, I’m here to listen.”

Her face softened into the tiniest possible smile. “Thank you, Adrien. I . . . was at an invitation-only fencing camp here in Paris on the day of Fairy Grandmother’s attack.”

Adrien’s hand fell from her shoulder. “Oh. So, you . . .”

“I was practicing with a boy named Kyo Kasahara.”

“Oh,” he said. She didn’t need to explain it any further.

“My mother was furious—not at us, since she understood we had been under mind-control—but with the situation. And Hawk Moth.”

“We’re all furious at Hawk Moth.”

She nodded and continued. “When the reports about pregnancies began, Mother made me take a pregnancy test right away.”

“Let me guess. It was positive?”

She nodded.

That meant there was a one hundred percent pregnancy rate so far among all of the Fairy Grandmother victims that Adrien personally knew of. It had to have been part of the akuma magic.

“Once she found that out,” Kagami continued, “she took me to Japan to speak to Kyo’s family. He’s an excellent fencer from a very good family. Mother . . . arranged for Kyo and I to be married as soon as we’re legally old enough.”

Adrien gasped. “What? Can she do that?”

“Not without my consent, but . . .”

“But you’re going to do what she wants,” he supplied. He knew Kagami’s mother was even more controlling than his father, but he would never let his father dictate who he married.

“There is no Hawk Moth in Japan, Adrien. There was no Fairy Grandmother attack. Even though they are aware of the news, it’s too distant for them. They wouldn’t understand like the people here in Paris do. Having a child at my age, if the boy didn’t take responsibility . . . it would make my future very difficult.”

“Couldn’t you just stay in Paris, then?”

She looked into his eyes, and he thought he saw something very sad in them, but she gave him another tiny smile. “There’s only one reason I’d want to stay here forever, and I think I’ve lost it.”

He didn’t understand what she meant by that, but something about the way she’d said it made him afraid to ask. “I’m sorry, Kagami. I’m sorry that attack is forcing you to make this choice.” _I’m sorry I didn’t do my job and stop it._

“No matter how hard we fight, life doesn’t always go the way we want it to.”

“Is this Kyo at least a good guy? Do you think you might learn to love him some day?”

Her eyes rose to the ceiling as if trying to search the future. “I do not know him well, but he is always polite, efficient, and demonstrates good sportsmanship. Perhaps.”

This conversation was heavy, and Adrien hadn’t done any good in cheering her up. He stood up and offered his hand. “Can I buy you some ice cream?”

#

Alya took her first bite of her quad-scoop chocolate-strawberry-bubblegum-watermelon ice cream cone and sighed with pleasure. “Your ice cream is the best, Andre.”

Andre laughed and thanked her as Nino handed him some money and took his own cone.

“It sure is,” said a voice suddenly behind them.

Alya jumped and spun to see Adrien and . . . Kagami? _Uh-oh._

“Hey, Adrien, my dude!” said Nino, giving Alya time to collect herself.

She smiled and acted casual. “Hey, Adrien. Hey, Kagami. What’s up?”

Adrien moved up to order as he said, “We just got done with fencing practice, and I thought it’d be nice to get some ice cream. Strawberry, chocolate, and passion fruit for me, please.”

The trick with Andre was to make your order before his imagination had the chance to get going—if you wanted to actually order your own ice cream.

Either Kagami had been here before or Adrien had warned her, because she stepped up right away and said, “Coconut, orange, and rainbow sherbet, please.”

Andre scooped their ice cream and handed them their cones. Adrien paid for both of them. Not a good sign. Alya felt a pang in her heart for her best friend but didn’t let it show on her face.

The four of them walked over to a bench. Alya and Nino didn’t really know Kagami very well, and Alya couldn’t say she particularly liked her or understood her, so there were a few seconds where they all filled the silence by eating ice cream.

“So, we don’t see you much, Kagami. How are you?” Alya asked to start things off.

Kagami looked to Adrien like she was hoping he’d tell her how to answer, but he only smiled encouragingly, so she turned back to Alya and said, “Pregnant.”

Alya almost dropped her ice cream at the blunt answer. “Oh, yeah? Same here.” Awkward laugh.

Kagami’s sharp eyes shot from her to Nino. “Yours?”

Nino echoed Alya’s awkward laugh and rubbed the back of his head. “Uh, yeah.”

“You’re lucky. Both of you.”

Unexpected sympathy for the girl welled up in Alya’s chest as she made sense of that statement. “So, your guy . . . ?”

Probably seeing how uncomfortable Kagami was (but how she was still willing to answer their questions, almost certainly only because they were Adrien’s friends), Adrien took this one for her. “It was a fencing partner at a camp she was at. She doesn’t really even know him.”

“Oh, girl, I’m so sorry,” Alya said, laying a hand on Kagami’s shoulder.

Kagami gave her a grateful smile. It was a strange look on the usually stoic girl, but all the more heartwarming for it.

But this clearly wasn’t a great topic of conversation. Reading the room, Nino said, “This is some killer ice cream, right guys?”

“The best in Paris,” Adrien agreed.

“Yes,” Kagami said, perking up back to her usual demeanor. “It is excellent.”

Alya nudged her playfully with her elbow. “You should have had another scoop, girl. You’re eating for two.”

The lighthearted tease could not have fallen flatter. Kagami only stared at her and said, “The fetus is currently too small to require such an excessive number of additional calories.”

“Uh . . . yeah.” Alya shot Nino a _maybe we should leave_ look. She felt bad for the girl, and she had maybe misjudged her before, but she didn’t know if she would ever actually understand Kagami or know how to interact with her.

Nino took Alya’s hand and told the other two, “We’d better go. Catch you guys later!”

They all parted with friendly waves, but as soon as they were far enough away, Alya got out her phone and called Marinette. “Girl, I’m sorry, but I have some bad news.”

#

Marinette flopped down onto Juleka’s bed and tossed her phone away. What had been a nice afternoon with Kitty Section and designing their next costumes had suddenly turned into a depressing spiral of hopelessness.

She had known nothing had changed between her and Adrien, romance-wise, because of this whole craziness. He had made it clear he still only saw her as a friend, even after everything. Was there anything in the world that could make him see her as more than that?

“What’s the matter, Marinette?” asked a soft, gentle voice.

Marinette bolted upright to find Luka sitting on the opposite bed. How did he always do that? She slumped. “Alya just saw Adrien getting sweethearts ice cream with Kagami.”

Luka picked up his guitar and strummed a few calming notes. “Adrien’s a great guy, and he’s smart. I don’t understand why he doesn’t see what an amazing girl you are.”

“Thanks, Luka.”

Luka kept playing his guitar, somehow finding exactly the right notes and melody to calm her nerves and cheer her up. He was such a sweet guy and a great friend. And really cute. She’d been afraid things would get awkward between them, after his love confession to her, and now that she was pregnant with Adrien’s baby. But Luka didn’t treat her any differently than he ever had. Just like with Cat Noir, expressing his feelings came so naturally to him.

Marinette had been in school with Juleka even before Adrien had joined their class, but she’d never met her brother back then. What if she had? Would Luka have liked her a couple years ago? If she’d met him before Adrien, would she be in love with him instead? If she was totally honest with herself, she thought she probably would be. Luka was so incredibly nice and wonderful, it was hard not to like him. And it was so easy to be herself around him, no stammering or making a fool of herself. Not very often, anyway. Why did her heart have to so stubbornly cling to Adrien when there was an amazing guy right here who actually liked her?

She sighed as Luka’s notes trailed off. “That was beautiful.”

“I just play what I see.”

She blushed.

“Do you want to go back upstairs?” he asked.

“Sure.” It still hurt to think of Adrien and Kagami on a date, but Luka and his music were like a cool cloth on her singed heart.


	19. Chapter 19

Adrien knew he couldn’t avoid it forever.

On Friday afternoon, right after school let out, Marinette waved him into the shadows under the stairs in the courtyard.

She fidgeted and didn’t look at him. “So, my parents, uh, want to have you for dinner—er, want you to come over for dinner tomorrow night.”

An image of Weredad flashed through Adrien’s mind. ‘Have him for dinner’ probably was the correct phrase here. It was tempting to claim his busy schedule didn’t leave room for it, but it had to happen eventually, and putting it off would only potentially annoy her parents. And make not such a great impression if they realized he was hiding from them. “Oh. Okay.”

“Six o’clock, and if your dad wants to come, he’s invited too.” As soon as the words were out, she bolted away and straight through the school’s front doors.

His father was invited too? Adrien honestly didn’t know if that would make the situation better or worse. Either way, he was dreading it with every bone in his body. The awkwardness of the lunch preceding the Weredad incident—when Tom had only believed his daughter was dating Cat Noir—had been almost physically painful. With things how they were now, Adrien figured Tom was either going to pound him into mush—or was already planning their wedding. If it was the latter, then once Adrien clarified that he didn’t actually have any plans to marry Marinette . . . well, he’d better be prepared for Weredad, round two.

#

Marinette was freaking out. “What if my parents scare him off, Tikki?” She’d changed her outfit three times already and was in the middle of change number four.

“They won’t scare him off,” Tikki said calmly.

Pulling a new blouse out of her closet, she held it up against the pants she was wearing. “Do you remember what happened when Dad thought Cat Noir and I were dating?”

“Oh . . . yes.” Tikki didn’t sound quite as sure now.

“And this is a million times worse!” She put the blouse on and told herself the outfit was fine. There wasn’t much time left, anyway. “What if they make him change his mind about wanting to be involved?”

“He’s not going to change his mind.”

“How do you know?”

“If he was able to stand up to his own father for you, I don’t think he’ll be scared off by your parents.”

The doorbell rang. “He’s here!” Marinette squeaked.

She ran downstairs, where Tom was putting a few last things on the table and Sabine was moving toward the door. Grabbing her mom by the shoulders, she whispered, “Did you talk to Dad? He’s not gonna get pushy again, is he?”

“I talked to him, dear. He’ll be fine. Do you want to answer the door, or should I?”

Marinette shuffled indecisively.

Her mom put her arm around Marinette’s waist. “Let’s do it together.”

Sabine moved her toward the door and opened it. Adrien stood there with his hands full, alone but incredibly handsome in a red sweater vest and slacks.

“Adrien,” Sabine said with a bright smile, “so good to see you again. You haven’t come into the bakery in a while.”

Pink tinged Adrien’s cheeks. He handed a white rose to Sabine. “For you, Mrs. Dupain-Cheng.” He handed a yellow rose to Marinette. “And for you, Marinette. Thank you for having me over.”

With a brief glance into the hall, Sabine said, “Your father couldn’t make it?”

Adrien winced. “Eeh, Father is really busy and doesn’t like to leave the house much. But I’m sure he’ll want to get together with you some time.”

As the focus of Adrien’s eyes rose a couple feet into the air, Marinette felt a large presence behind her. “Adrien,” said Tom, “good of you to come.”

“H-hello, Mr. Dupain.” He held up a bottle of sparkling cider. “I—I brought this.”

Tom picked up Adrien in a bear hug. “Now then, Adrien, we’re family. Call me Tom.”

Adrien’s eyes bugged out and begged Marinette for help.

Marinette face-palmed. “This is him being fine?” she hissed to her mother.

Sabine put a hand on her husband’s arm. “Tom, put him down. You’re crushing him.”

Tom set Adrien down, leaving one hand on his shoulder to guide him toward the table. “Now then, let’s all eat before it gets cold.”

Sabine took the two roses and put them in water, and they all took their seats.

Marinette’s fingers clutched convulsively at the fabric of her pants. She could sense Adrien just as stiff and uncomfortable beside her.

Tom put the first course in the middle of the table and dished out the food onto everyone’s plates. “Now then, Adrien, why don’t you tell us more about yourself? I understand you’re a model.”

Adrien took a tentative bite of the pasta now on his plate, then eagerly shoveled in another mouthful. He finished chewing before answering. “That’s right, sir.”

“Tom,” Tom corrected.

“Uh . . . Tom. I’ve been modeling for my father’s company since I was little.”

“And what are the long-term prospects with a career like that?”

Marinette did another face-palm and whispered, “I’m sorry,” to Adrien.

Adrien looked at least as uncomfortable as Cat Noir had with the career plans interrogation. “Well, I’ll probably do it for as long as I can, then at some point take over the company when Father retires.”

Tom beamed. “A family business. Good! Good!”

Sabine laid a hand on Tom’s arm. “Tom, maybe we could hold off these sorts of questions for after we eat. We wouldn’t want the food to get cold because we’re all talking.”

“Good point, dear. Eat up, kids!”

Even though Marinette didn’t have much appetite, as long as she and Adrien were eating, they weren’t being asked weird questions. So they worked through every course dutifully until Tom finally brought out some chocolate mousse for dessert.

While they nibbled mousse, Tom said, “Now, about your plans with Marinette—”

Adrien held up his hand. “Sir—uh, Tom, I don’t want you to get the wrong impression. Despite what happened in Fairy Grandmother’s attack, Marinette and I are just friends. She’s an awesome girl, and I’m one hundred percent supporting her in any way I can—and I’ll do whatever I can for the baby, too. But we’re not getting married. I already have a girl I love.”

Even though his rational, straightforward denial felt like a spear in Marinette’s heart, she fought to not let her pain show on her face. And then she fought to shake off the pain. Just because that was how Adrien felt _now_ didn’t mean it was how he would _always_ feel, after all.

Tom scowled. “It isn’t Ladybug, is it?”

Adrien jumped in his seat. “What?”

“Because the last time a boy said Marinette was awesome but not awesome enough, he was in love with Ladybug. Not that Ladybug isn’t great, but—”

“Dad!” Marinette interrupted, rolling her eyes. “It’s _not_ Ladybug!”

Adrien shrugged at Tom apologetically. “Marinette _is_ awesome, sir, and I’m glad that this baby means I’ll get to have her in my life for a long time, but only as a friend. We don’t see each other as anything more.”

“Nonsense! Marinette—”

Marinette made frantic ‘cut it out’ motions.

Tom quickly course-corrected. “—is great! I’m sure you’d fall for her if you gave it some time.”

Adrien smiled sadly. “The thing is, I’ve fallen pretty hard for this other girl. I don’t think I could give anyone else the kind of love she deserves. Marinette definitely deserves someone who’ll love her with his whole heart.”

Sabine reached across the table and squeezed Adrien’s hand. “You’re a wonderful boy, Adrien. You and Marinette both deserve happiness, even if it’s not with each other. As long as you’ll be there as her friend and as the father of her child, you’ll always be part of our family.”

Adrien gave her a lonely smile. “I’ll always be there. And if that means I can count you two as family, I’m a lot luckier than I deserve to be.”

“Speaking of supporting her,” Sabine said, “we hate to ask something like this of you so soon . . .”

“Whatever it is, if I can do it, I will,” he promised.

“We actually thought it might be something your father could help with, since he seems to have some connections . . .”

#

After they finished dessert, Marinette helped Sabine clean up while Tom dragged Adrien down to the bakery for some privacy.

_Here it comes_ , he thought, still dreading the pummeling or imminent akumatization.

Tom laid two extremely large and heavy hands on Adrien’s shoulders. “I’m sorry if I got a little pushy, son. But my little girl’s happiness and her future mean the world to me. I like you, and I’d love to see you make her happy, but I don’t mean to try to force either of you into something you don’t want.”

“Thank you, sir. Uh, Tom. I want to see Marinette happy, too, and if I thought I could be the guy to do that for her, I would, but the heart wants what the heart wants.”

“Yes, it does,” Tom agreed. He removed his hands, and Adrien breathed a little easier.

“And I’m so sorry all of this happened. I would never, ever have done something like that if the mind-control gas hadn’t—”

Tom stopped him. “I know. And to be honest, I’m glad that if it had to happen, you were the one she was with when it did. When she first came running in, crying and traumatized, I was terrified that it had been some strange man three times her age or something like that. And I was all the more relieved it had been you when we found out the attack had resulted in her pregnancy. This is so hard on all of us, with her being so young and everything, but it could have been so much worse. So I want you to know that I don’t hold it against you.”

Adrien hardly dared to believe it. “Really?”

“Really.”

“Not at all?”

Tom laughed. “Not at all.”

Adrien let out a loud sigh. “I’m so glad to hear that. I was really afraid you might kill me.”

Tom laughed even louder and slung an arm around Adrien’s shoulders. “If it had happened without being the result of mind-control, I might have.”

“Heh . . . heh . . . ” Adrien tried to laugh, not at all sure if Tom was joking or not. Not that it really mattered, because there was no chance Adrien would ever have done that without the mind-control, so he’d never really have been in danger.

#

When Adrien got home, his father met him in the foyer. “How did it go?”

“It wasn’t exactly fun, but it went fine. Marinette’s parents would really like to get together with you some time.”

Gabriel hummed. He sounded unhappy for some reason. But then, he usually did.

“Father, they had a request about something they thought you could help with. About the . . . pregnancy.”

“Oh?”

“Marinette hasn’t been able to find a good gynecologist. Her mom’s doctor isn’t accepting new patients. I guess with the sudden boom of pregnancies, it’s really hard for anyone who doesn’t already have a gynecologist to get one.”

Gabriel signaled to Nathalie, who was standing a little ways off. “Handle this. The best gynecologist you can get. Tell them to send any bills to me.”

“Yes, sir.” Nathalie began tapping on her tablet.

Adrien sighed with relief. From what his father had said earlier, he suspected he’d help with this, but he hadn’t been sure. “Thank you, Father.” He decided to push it just a little more. “Um, some of my other friends are having the same problem. Like Alya, the other girl who was here when it happened.”

Gabriel scowled down at him. “And you want me to find her a doctor, too.”

“Would you, Father? Please?”

To Adrien’s surprise, Gabriel waved a hand in Nathalie’s direction, which she apparently took to mean she should handle that task as well. “Will that be all?” he asked Adrien.

Adrien shook his head, then gave Gabriel a quick hug. “Thank you, Father. It means a lot to me that you’re helping me help my friends.” It was frustrating that he had to rely on his father to do things like that which he couldn’t, but he was grateful all the same.

When Adrien got to his room, he pulled off his shoes and spread out on his couch. “Well, the evening didn’t go as badly as I’d feared.”

Plagg floated nearby. “Why are you so sure you couldn’t ever love that girl?”

“Plagg, you know I’m in love with Ladybug. It’s nothing against Marinette.”

Plagg shrugged and flew off toward the cheese cupboard. “All I’m saying is one pig-tailed brunette keeps rejecting you and the other’s having your baby.”

Adrien didn’t let Plagg’s comments—reminders of facts—get him down. Plagg didn’t understand matters of love at all. Real love wasn’t something that could change that easily. And it wasn’t like it was his decision alone to make, anyway. It wouldn’t do any good to change his heart since Marinette didn’t love him that way either.


	20. Chapter 20

Monday morning’s class was going along smooth and boring until Chloe lurched out of her seat and threw up into the trash can.

Miss Bustier jerked back in surprise. “Chloe, are you all right?”

With her head still in the trash can, Chloe waved at the teacher. “Fine,” she said in a pause between retching. Sabrina was already at her side, keeping her long hair from falling into the trash can.

Adrien glanced back at Marinette and saw sympathy and understanding in her eyes.

“It’s probably food poisoning,” Sabrina offered.

Chloe hurled a few more times before finally sitting back on her heels. “I’m fine. It’s nothing.”

Adrien stood up. “Miss Bustier, maybe I should take Chloe to the school nurse.”

“I think that’s a good idea, Adrien. Thank you.” Miss Bustier wrote a quick pass for them as Adrien went down and helped Chloe to her feet. Possibly understanding that he might help in ways she couldn’t, Sabrina stood aside and offered to empty the trash.

Chloe clung to Adrien’s arm as he walked her down the hall, but her head was ducked and her eyes averted from him in embarrassment.

“It’s fine, Chloe,” he told her. “You don’t have to be embarrassed.”

To his surprise, she didn’t say anything.

Adrien had a suspicion that she didn’t really need the nurse. Another class was in the courtyard having PE, so Adrien found an empty classroom and pulled Chloe into it.

“What are we doing?” she asked as Adrien gently pushed her into a chair.

Adrien sat on the edge of the teacher’s desk. “It’s not food poisoning, is it, Chloe?”

She looked away. “Of course it is. What else could it be?”

“Morning sickness.”

Her face reddened. “That’s ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous!”

He nodded. “As a way of describing this whole situation, I agree with you this time. But you can’t escape reality, Chloe.”

“What reality?”

“I talked to Pierre.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Who’s Pierre?”

Adrien sighed. “The busboy you got trapped in the pantry with.”

The color drained from her face entirely.

“He told me what happened. He wasn’t lying, was he?”

“Of course he was!”

Adrien lowered his voice, as gentle and encouraging as he could be. “Chloe, tell me the truth. I’m your friend.”

The vulnerability in her eyes was not something he saw often from her. “He . . . he wasn’t lying.”

Adrien moved from the desk to kneel beside her, putting a hand on hers. “It’s okay. We’re all in this together. Don’t you know that by now? No one’s going to judge you for it. I don’t think I’m the only one who already suspects you’ve been hiding what really happened.”

Her eyes darted to the side in a way that told him she’d probably heard comments from others to that effect already. “ _You_ may like slumming it with these losers, Adrien, but I’m not one of _them_.” Though her tone was thick with condescension, he heard the loneliness beneath it.

“I know you’re not on the best terms with everyone in class, but I know for a fact that a lot of them—probably all of them—really want to support you when it comes to this. There are . . .”—he searched for the best way to say it—“things that divide people and things that bring people together. I think this is one of the latter.”

She folded her arms defiantly. “I don’t want their help.”

He stood. “All right. I won’t try to force you, Chloe. But I hope you come to realize that the others really do mean well. The other girls want you to be with them on this.”

“How do you know?”

“Marinette.”

She snorted. “Of course.”

Getting through Chloe’s tough outer shell wasn’t something anyone could do easily. Even with a lifetime of friendship behind them, it wasn’t easy for Adrien. He decided not to push it any further, at least for today. “Okay. But whether you want anything to do with them or not, I want you to know that I’m here for you. You can talk to me about it if you want.”

“Really, Adrien?”

“Of course. We’re friends, right?”

She flung himself into his arms and squeezed him tight. Instead of gently pushing her away or tolerating it like he usually did, he returned the hug, holding her until she let go. When she looked up at him, her eyes were wet, but she smiled. “Thank you.”

He stepped back to regain some personal space. “Have you taken a pregnancy test?”

Clasping her hands in front of her nervously, she nodded. “It was . . . positive.”

“Have you told anyone else?”

She shook her head.

“Not even your dad?”

“I . . . I wouldn’t know how to. Especially after I told him nothing happened.”

Adrien could understand that. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any advice to give her on that point at the moment. “Can I see your phone?”

She handed it over. “Why?”

He tapped away on it. “I’m giving you Pierre’s number.”

“What?” She snatched it back, but Adrien had already added the number to her contacts. She glared at the entry and poised her finger over the screen, probably to delete it.

“You don’t have to contact him, but it’s there if you decide to. He seems like a decent guy, and he wants to help if you’ll let him.”

After a few more seconds of hovering, her hand fell to her side, leaving the contact in her phone. “I don’t need him or any other nobody.”

“Well, it’s there if you change your mind.”

She huffed and stuffed the phone back into her pocket. As Chloe’s responses went, it wasn’t discouraging.

Adrien smiled and held out his arm to her. “Do you feel okay to go back to class?” She would need to admit the truth to the rest of the class, since it really wasn’t something she could hide forever, but it was probably best for her to find a way to tell her parents first.

Chloe clasped his arm, chin high and arrogant expression in place. “I suppose.”

#

The TV studio was too hot—or maybe that was just Adrien’s nerves. He was used to being in front of people and in front of cameras, but normally the reasons weren’t so personal. But Alix had been right; he really was the face of this thing, whether he wanted to be or not. He knew that most of the people affected were adults and he was one of the youngest, but maybe that was partly why the media had latched onto him as the spokesman. He was young, innocent, sympathetic, and already in the public eye.

The host broke for commercial, and an assistant director tapped Adrien on the shoulder. “Time for you to get into position.”

Adrien went where he’d been told, taking the seat on the set closest to Nadja Chamak, partially facing her at an angle in the usual talk show way. In the darkness behind the cameras, he saw Nathalie give him an encouraging nod.

It was only thirty seconds before they were back on the air.

“Joining me today is Adrien Agreste, famous model and son of fashion designer Gabriel Agreste.” Nadja turned her attention from the camera to him. “Thanks for joining us today, Adrien.”

“Thanks for having me, Nadja,” he responded dutifully.

“I’m sure most of our viewers have seen your video by now, where you bravely admitted to being one of Fairy Grandmother’s victims and urged the citizens of Paris to pull together in this time of crisis. What made you want to step out like that?”

The Gabriel PR people had coached him ahead of this interview, but Adrien always preferred to just be honest whenever possible. “I didn’t really think of it that way at the time. It was never my intention to make a claim to represent everyone who was affected by the attack. It just so happened that certain moments in my personal life had been captured by a reporter, and news and rumors started flying around. I only wanted to explain myself and ask people not to bother my friend.”

“By ‘friend’, you mean the girl who Fairy Grandmother’s mind-control made you impregnate.”

Adrien’s face suddenly felt like it would melt off, and it wasn’t just the lights. He sank lower in his seat as if he could hide in the cushions. “Um . . . yes.” Leave it to reporters to put things as bluntly as possible.

Nadja smiled in satisfaction as if his reaction was exactly what she’d been hoping for. “Regardless of your motives, your video certainly was inspiring to a lot of people. Many more women and girls decided to get pregnancy tests, and the male victims of Fairy Grandmother have largely been outspoken about trying to do their parts to help. In addition, numerous charities have already been set up to assist the new mothers who might be especially in need at this time, gynecologists from outside Paris and even other countries are beginning to arrive to fill the sudden need for more doctors, and donations are coming in from individuals and corporations to assist. I understand even your father, Gabriel Agreste, is doing his part.”

Adrien nodded. “Father made a donation to the city’s education fund to help schools set up ways to assist pregnant students and staff and to work out child care options for when the babies start coming.”

“He truly is a generous individual. And isn’t the Gabriel brand doing something as well?”

“A new line of low-cost, fashionable maternity wear is in the works and should be in stores in a few months.” Adrien made the little ad like he was supposed to, going along with the framing of it as some sort of charity work, even though doing so made him squirm. Even at lower prices, his father had found a way to make a sizable profit from the idea. But it probably would help a bit, so it wasn’t like Adrien was actually participating in total deception.

“Well, I know _I’ll_ be looking forward to that,” Nadja said with a look to the camera.

Adrien fought back the urge to cringe.

“And now it’s time for our next guest,” Nadja announced. “The woman who was akumatized into Fairy Grandmother, Mabel LeCrux!”

There was no studio audience, but Adrien could practically hear the ghosts of their booing and jeering anyway. A middle-aged woman walked nervously out onto the stage and took the chair beside Adrien.

And now came the main attraction of this little circus. Adrien really hadn’t wanted to do this, but his father had insisted. Gabriel had been helping Adrien’s friends in ways that Adrien couldn’t do himself, so Adrien was willing to be obedient in this to make sure that help kept coming.

Mrs. LeCrux fidgeted with the arms of her chair for a few seconds before pulling a handkerchief from her pocket and fidgeting with that instead.

Nadja smiled at her like she was any other guest. “Mrs. LeCrux, thank you for coming. Would you tell us, if you can remember, what it was that led to the negative feelings that gave Hawk Moth the opening to akumatize you?”

The older woman glanced from Nadja to the cameras and back. “I—I was arguing with my daughter.”

“About?” Nadja prompted.

“About g-grandchildren. I wanted some, but she said she didn’t want to have kids.”

“I see,” Nadja said. “And is that the last thing you remember?”

“She yelled at me and stormed out and then . . . then I was in the middle of the street.” The poor woman burst into tears. “I’m so sorry! I never meant for any of this to happen! My daughter w-won’t even talk to me, and she’s said that my grandchild will never see me! And I’ve hurt so many other people!” Suddenly, she pinned her attention on Adrien. “You poor boy, I’m so sorry!”

Adrien stiffened in his seat. The woman’s intense crying was a bit overwhelming.

It didn’t help when Nadja said, “And do you have anything to say to Mrs. LaCrux, Adrien?”

He knew what he was supposed to do, according to the script. And he knew what some people watching probably wanted him to do. He forgot about all of that and spoke from the heart. “Yes, Nadja. I do.” He turned to face Mrs. LaCrux. She flinched back from him, but only for a second. He couldn’t say the words he really wanted to: _I’m sorry Ladybug and I didn’t save you._ Instead, he said, “Please stop crying, Mrs. LaCrux. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

The woman blinked in surprise and wiped her tears with her handkerchief.

“Do you mean that you forgive her, Adrien?” Nadja asked.

He turned a hard look on the host. “No. I mean she didn’t do anything wrong. All she did was experience a negative emotion. While we’re all responsible for our emotions and for what those emotions cause us to do, we’re not responsible for Hawk Moth taking advantage of that momentary weakness to turn us into supervillains. I can count on one hand the number of people who have successfully fought off an akuma or resisted Hawk Moth’s control—even temporarily. I can’t hold Mrs. LaCrux accountable for the actions of Fairy Grandmother any more than I can hold you accountable for the actions of Prime Queen. Or your sweet daughter, Manon, accountable for the actions of the Puppeteer.”

Nadja leaned back in surprise. Those personal references probably hadn’t been in the script.

Adrien looked into the camera aimed at him. “And I hope everyone else out there remembers that, too. Mrs. LaCrux did not do this to us. Hawk Moth did. If we forget that—if we start turning on the akuma victims rather than the real villain—then we’re just giving Hawk Moth what he wants: more chaos and discord and bad feelings to aim his akumas at.”

Nadja had managed to collect herself. “Well said, Adrien. Speaking as someone who, as you pointed out, has also been akumatized, I certainly agree that we need to keep the true villain in mind rather than going after the easier targets that akuma victims may present.”

Adrien again addressed the viewing audience, hands held open. “If Ladybug’s magic ladybugs had fixed everything like they normally do, no one would even be talking about this. Mrs. LaCrux just got unlucky to be turned into the one villain Ladybug wasn’t able to defeat.”

“That’s another question some people have been asking,” Nadja said. “Where was Ladybug, and why didn’t her magic fix things like it normally does?”

Adrien began to lose his temper. “Now hold on, Nadja. Ladybug did her best. She always does her best. She’s saved us so many times; how ungrateful would we be to hold one failure against her? We don’t know why she wasn’t there or why the magic ladybugs didn’t fix everything, but we shouldn’t get mad at her for letting one out of _dozens_ of villains that Hawk Moth has been throwing at her to slip past her defenses. She may be an amazing person, and she may have superpowers, but she’s only human, so we can’t expect her to be perfect. Paris would be a flooded pile of rubble by now if not for Ladybug. We owe her our gratitude, not our entitled demands.”

Nadja was wearing that look of pleased satisfaction again. She turned to the camera. “There you have it, viewers. Adrien Agreste’s impassioned plea to keep any and all blame aimed squarely at Hawk Moth and no one else. Personally, I couldn’t agree more.”


	21. Chapter 21

Weeks passed, and things were shockingly normal—at least from Adrien’s perspective. Hawk Moth continued sending out akumas, but none of their fights had required any power-ups or extra heroes lately. School went along almost like usual, too. The girls complained of weird symptoms pretty frequently, and because of this most people in the class had taken to keeping small bottles of acetaminophen or other basic meds in their bags. It wasn’t uncommon to hear one of the girls pull out a plastic vomit bag (one of the things the school was keeping stocked in all classrooms) and throw up for a minute or two in the middle of class. Miss Bustier just paused until the girl was done, whoever was next to her usually offering sympathy and/or rubbing her back. It had been weird at first, but they’d all gotten used to it pretty quickly.

Friday afternoon, after class ended, Adrien was walking out with Nino when he overheard Alya say to Marinette, “Nora strong-armed me into joining a special class at the gym with her. You want to join? _Apparently_ it’s important to stay fit and not use pregnancy as an excuse to get fat.”

“Me? At the gym?” Marinette panicked. “I, uh, don’t think I have time for—”

“Come on, girl. You could do with lifting a few weights. How are you gonna carry a toddler with those little stick arms?”

“I do _not_ have stick arms, and I can pick up kids just fine!”

Behind her, Adrien stifled a laugh.

She spun, appearing horrified to catch him listening to them.

“Sorry,” he said, still smiling behind his hand. “I don’t think you have stick arms. It was just funny to hear you say that.”

She looked embarrassed like she was about to run off. Nino saved the moment by saying, “Hey, ladies, how ’bout the four of us have a video game night at my place?”

A beat after his words were out, things got a little awkward. It was the first time anyone had suggested the four of them hang out together at one of their homes since . . .

“I was gonna invite Max, too,” Nino added in a rush. “And maybe Alix.”

“Maybe Rose and Juleka, too,” Alya enthused. “We can get some pizza and thrash each other at games.”

Marinette beamed. “I’m in.”

When the three of them looked at Adrien, he said, “I’d really love to, but I’ll have to check my schedule.”

It wasn’t a no, so they made encouraging noises and started planning out which games they should play while texting the other people they wanted to invite.

#

The fencing matches were almost over. Adrien had finished with his already, so he was watching one of the last matches from the back when he noticed Kagami leaning against the wall with her arms crossed and head down. She hadn’t done very well in her matches today. Her heart just hadn’t been in it.

Adrien went over to her. “Are you okay, Kagami?”

“Hello, Adrien. I’m f—” Her eyes met his, and she changed her answer. “Not really. But I’d rather not talk about it.”

After about one second’s thought, he followed his heart and made a rash decision. “How do you feel about being distracted from it, then?”

His father had already refused his request to go to Nino’s house for game night. So Adrien had planned to sneak out as Cat Noir after they got home. Inviting Kagami changed that plan entirely, but it had to be done. When a friend was depressed, Adrien couldn’t just sit by and let her be unhappy if there was anything he could do about it.

At her questioning glance, he nodded toward the locker room, where they could speak a little more privately. He told her what he had in mind. Even though she didn’t strike him as a gamer, she eagerly accepted the invitation.

Once he’d texted Nino and gotten confirmation that it would be all right to bring a friend, they both changed into their regular clothes. It wasn’t exactly easy sneaking out of the building, but Nathalie wasn’t paying very close attention (assuming he was safely inside until the matches were over), and Kagami’s mom was too far away to know whether she was she was in the building or not (also assuming she’d be where she was supposed to). As casually and quietly as they could, they snuck through the back of the crowd and out the main door.

Once they were on the sidewalk, Adrien took Kagami’s hand and ran off toward Nino’s place, the two of them laughing like naughty children.

#

The game night would have turned into a full-blown party if Nino’s parents hadn’t put a strict limit on how many people he was allowed to invite. By the time Marinette showed up, half the class was there—but no Adrien.

Alya slung an arm around Marinette’s shoulders. “He texted Nino about coming, so hope’s not lost. Meanwhile, look who else showed up.” She pointed Marinette toward a corner of the living room where Luka was idly strumming on his guitar.

Marinette felt her face heat. “Why would you think I’d especially care about that?”

“You know he likes you, right?”

“Well . . . yeah . . .”

“And he’s cute and sweet, and if my keen journalistic eye doesn’t deceive me, you’re at least kinda into him, right?”

“Alya, I’m in love with Adrien.”

“I’m just saying, girl. It doesn’t hurt to shop around.”

“Are _you_ shopping around?”

“No,” Alya admitted, “but Nino and I are . . . well . . .”

“Already together,” Marinette filled in miserably.

Alya put both hands on Marinette’s shoulders and looked her in the eye. “You know I’m rooting for you and Adrien. But I’m rooting even more for you to be happy. And so far, Adrien . . .”

“Hasn’t ever seen me as more than a friend,” Marinette filled in, even more miserably.

“After what happened—after what’s still happening—don’t you think that’s . . . maybe not the best sign?”

Marinette felt like a wilting flower. Alya was right. Marinette wasn’t willing to give up hope yet, but things weren’t looking great.

“Are you ever going to tell him how you feel?” Alya asked.

Marinette sighed. “I don’t know. It never seems like the right moment. And I really don’t want to make things weird between us. Not now.”

Alya nodded understandingly. “Well, try not to worry too much about it now. Just go have fun and kick some butt in Mecha Strike. Okay?”

“Okay!”

Marinette was in the kitchen, putting some pizza on a paper plate, when a not-too-distant roar set off her superhero alarm bells. A few other people looked toward the windows in concern, but most were too busy chatting or playing games to notice.

She set her plate down, turned to leave the kitchen, and bumped into Nino. “Nino! Can I lie down in your bedroom? I’m having a sudden dizzy spell.” One good thing about her pregnancy was that it was _great_ for making up sudden excuses.

Nino’s eyes widened with worry. “Of course! Here, let me show you.” He took her arm and led her along.

Marinette went with Nino to his room and lay down on his bed. He watched her closely until he was satisfied she was settled, then left and closed the door behind him.

She spared a second to lock the door, then transformed and jumped through the bedroom window.

#

 _Okay, maybe this wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had_ , Adrien thought as he raced down side streets, dragging Kagami behind him, fleeing from the bigger-and-better Ikari Gozen. He was pretty sure the villain hadn’t spotted them yet, but he’d caught a few glimpses of her between buildings—enough to know that she was twice the size she was last time and could shoot energy blasts from her eyes.

“What do we do?” Kagami asked.

Adrien shoved her around a corner and against a brick wall just as a stray energy blast turned the concrete they’d been running on into gravel. “Ladybug and Cat Noir will be here soon. The most important thing is to get you hidden.”

Kagami glanced around and pointed at the back door to a pizzeria. “In there?”

“Let’s try.” He ran through the alley and pushed her through the door. When they got inside, they found themselves in a kitchen, where a large, dark-haired woman was giving them a strange look. “Can she hide here?” he asked. “Her mom got akumatized and is after her.”

The woman narrowed her eyes. “Does the supervillain know she’s here?”

Kagami shook her head. “She hasn’t found me yet. She wouldn’t think to look for me here.”

The woman gave a firm nod. “All right.” Putting her arm around Kagami’s shoulders, she ushered her into a small broom closet.

Before the woman could shut the door, Kagami asked Adrien, “What about you?”

“That closet’s not big enough for me too. I’ll find somewhere else to hide and come for you after the attack’s over.” He nodded to the woman, and she shut the door. “Thank you.”

“Be safe out there, boy.”

Adrien ran out into the alley, found a secluded corner, and transformed. As Cat Noir leapt onto the rooftops, his first order of business was to lure Ikari Gozen as far from this place as he could.

He managed to get the centaur-like villain about four blocks the other direction, but to do so he’d had to make himself the sole target of her fury. Which had meant taking several of those eye blasts and nearly getting hit by her bokken. He was a lot tougher than a regular person in his suit, but when a weapon the size of a tree trunk gets swung like a baseball bat at your head by an angry metal giant, you start to question how much protection you really have.

The police were on the scene (for some reason), and their presence distracted the villain long enough for Cat Noir to get a little distance and watch her from a rooftop.

Ladybug dropped down beside him. “Her again? Where’s Kagami?”

“Hiding,” he answered without thinking. “I got her to safety already.” As long as Ladybug didn’t compare notes with Kagami any time soon, there shouldn’t be a problem.

“Good.” Ladybug watched with him as Ikari Gozen picked up a police car and hurled it about a mile away. “She’s . . . a lot bigger than last time.”

“And the eye blasts.”

“And . . . pods?”

Ikari Gozen picked up one of the police officers and swallowed him. A few seconds later, a metal pod dropped out of her underside. When it hit the street beneath her, it grew insectoid legs and pincers, like some kind of robot bug car. Through the cockpit windows, they could see it was driven by what must have been the police officer but was now a red-helmeted minion of Ikari Gozen. It didn’t stay to fight but scuttled off down the street.

“I’ve seen her do that three times already,” Cat Noir said. “I think she’s sending them out to look for her daughter.”

“Where’s her akuma hiding?”

“I can’t tell for sure. Probably her bokken again.”

Ladybug and Cat Noir leapt in to fight the villain, but the two of them together didn’t have much better luck than him alone. She was too fast with those eye blasts, and her bokken was too big. They’d leap away from her blast, only to realize she’d used it to send them into the path of her bokken. Meanwhile, she kept eating more and more bystanders and sending them out as minions to search for her daughter. If she decided to use them offensively, they’d be in real trouble.

The heroes retreated a safe distance away again. “This isn’t working,” Cat Noir observed. “Got any ideas, Milady?”

“I think we need help.”

“Rena Rouge and Carapace?”

Ladybug nodded. “I’ll go get their Miraculouses and then get them. You try to get as many people out of Ikari Gozen’s path as you can. Don’t engage her directly anymore. We need you, and we’ll be in trouble if you get taken out before we can launch a concentrated attack.”

“Such concern for my well-being warms my heart,” he teased.

She smirked at him, then swung away.


	22. Chapter 22

Ladybug stood outside the door to Nino’s home. Getting his and Alya’s attention through a window wouldn’t be easy with all the other people inside, and if she called their cell phones, they’d wonder how she had their numbers. So all she could do was knock and hope one of them answered.

To her relief, Alya answered the door. As soon as she saw the two Miraculous boxes in Ladybug’s hands, she waved to Nino and slipped out into the hall. “Been a while since you needed our help.”

“I would have liked to go a lot longer.”

Nino joined them, not opening the door all the way as he came through, then shutting it before anyone inside could get a look out. He didn’t appear particularly happy.

Ladybug didn’t waste time in holding their Miraculouses out to them.

Nino grabbed his and glared at Alya while he put it on. It wasn’t an angry glare, but Ladybug couldn’t quite understand what he meant by it.

And Alya didn’t take her Miraculous.

“Is there a problem?” Ladybug asked her.

Alya casually crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “ _Someone_ thinks I shouldn’t be doing dangerous superhero work while I’m pregnant.”

It took a second for Ladybug to digest that. Such an idea had never even occurred to her.

Alya waved one hand in a vague gesture. “And _someone_ is probably right. Sorry, Ladybug. You know I’m your girl, but I’m gonna have to sit out any superheroing for a while.”

The hand holding the Fox Miraculous fell limply to Ladybug’s side. “Oh. Okay.”

Nino transformed into Carapace. “You can still count on me, though, Ladybug.”

“Thanks, Carapace.” Ladybug’s head was still spinning a bit from the idea that her friend would opt out of saving Paris because of a pregnancy—and wondering why it had never occurred to her that _her_ pregnancy might affect her ability to do her job. “Let’s go.”

She led Carapace across the city and met up with Cat Noir on a rooftop. He looked at Carapace, then behind them expectantly. When Rena Rouge didn’t show up, he asked, “Where’s Rena?”

“Rena’s out of commission for a while,” Carapace said in a brooks-no-argument kind of tone.

“Is she okay?” Cat Noir asked with concern.

“She’s fine. But she’s . . . pregnant. We thought it would be best for her not to go throwing herself into fights with supervillains until after the baby’s born.”

Ladybug didn’t miss the subtle, considering look Cat Noir cast toward her, even though it was quick. “You two are together, aren’t you?” he asked Carapace.

“Yeah. And yeah, it’s mine.”

Cat Noir grinned at him. “Then, con _cat_ ulations.”

Carapace groaned. “You did not just say that.”

“As much as we appreciate your help,” Ladybug said, pointing to Ikari Gozen, “I’m still not sure the three of us are going to be enough to defeat that. You two stay here and keep getting people out of her way, and I’ll go get some other reinforcements.”

“Aye, aye, Milady,” Cat Noir said, saluting.

As fast as she could, Ladybug swung back to Master Fu’s apartment and dropped in, transforming once she was inside.

Fu looked up from some old papers he’d been reading. “Back so soon?”

Marinette held out the box containing the Fox Miraculous. “Alya refused to join us this time.”

His eyebrows shot up. “She did?”

“She’s, uh, pregnant. She didn’t think it was a good idea.”

“Ahhh.” He nodded sagely and took the box. In moments, he had the whole Miracle Box out and open, all the remaining Miraculouses on display. “I take it, then, that you are here to choose a different Miraculous holder to assist you.”

“Yeah.” Marinette rubbed her arms, looking into the box. “I didn’t have time to give the Fox Miraculous to someone else—we need someone who already knows what they’re doing and who we already trust as part of the team. And I can’t waste time with one of the other girls in case they also say they can’t do it because they’re pregnant.”

“Do you know that they are?”

“I’ve gotten second-hand confirmation about Kagami and Chloe. Even Alix is, though the present version of her hasn’t become Bunnyx yet. That only leaves the guys.” Which made her decision pretty simple. She snatched the Snake and Horse Miraculouses from the box. “Thanks, Master Fu.”

Before she could leave, Fu said, “And what about you, Marinette?”

She froze, her stomach suddenly churning with an uncomfortable certainty. “What do you mean?”

“Are you pregnant?” he asked, his words direct but his tone gentle and grandfatherly.

She felt the heat rise in her cheeks. “Yes.”

“I thought you might be. It was highly unusual that you didn’t show up to fight Fairy Grandmother.”

She hunched in on herself in embarrassment. “I . . . got caught by the gas before I could transform.”

Fu reached up to lay a hand on her shoulder. “It’s all right, Marinette. It wasn’t your fault.”

“Mhm,” she hummed noncommittally. It wasn’t so much that she believed that; rather, she had come to terms with the guilt about it.

“May I ask . . . ”

“It was one of my friends from school. Adrien.”

Although Fu’s expression remained sympathetic, Marinette thought she could see a flash of something suspiciously like a twinkle in the old man’s eye. “Ah, yes. He’s a good boy.”

That was true, but how did Fu . . . “Oh, right, you were at his house when that party broke out. Do you know him?”

Fu shrugged. “I tutor him in Chinese sometimes.”

“That’s a funny coincidence.”

“Is it? Massage parlors run by old men don’t rake in the big bucks you might think.” And now that he was in hiding, he didn’t even have that.

Marinette giggled at his self-deprecation. It really wasn’t that much of a coincidence, she supposed, looking at it from a non-Marinette-centric point of view. There were probably only so many qualified Chinese tutors in Paris, and only so many kids with rich parents who wanted them tutored in Chinese.

His expression grew serious. “Marinette, sit for a moment.”

“There’s really not time—”

“This will be short.”

She sat on the floor as he finished putting the Miracle Box away. Then he sat facing her. When he didn’t say anything for long enough, she asked, “Have . . . have any other Ladybugs ever been pregnant?”

“The question you should be asking is: Have any previous Ladybugs ever continued their duties during a pregnancy?”

“And?”

“To my knowledge, no, though Tikki would be a better one to ask.”

Marinette sat there, fidgeting, and blurted out, “Are you going to make me give my Miraculous back?”

He sighed. “Marinette, you are an amazing Ladybug. Quite possibly the best Ladybug there has ever been. And you haven’t done anything wrong. I won’t force you to give back your Miraculous. But I would ask you to consider what is best for yourself, the city, and the child growing inside you.”

As the Guardian, Master Fu had the authority to order her to give back her Miraculous and to choose a different person to be Ladybug. But he trusted her to find a solution on her own. Her chest swelled with pride at being shown that kind of trust by him, even if she wasn’t at all sure she could live up to it. But she did have an idea. “Thank you, Master Fu. In that case, I do have one request, if it’s all right.”

#

Ladybug let out a resigned breath. Here she was, back at Nino’s, and she couldn’t think of any way to do this that wouldn’t expose someone or—worse—make someone suspicious of her. But Nino and Alya already knew each other’s identities. And Luka’s identity was already exposed to Adrien. And Cat Noir knew about Pegasus. As long as hers and Cat Noir’s identities remained locked down and Hawk Moth never found out about any of the rest of them (another reason she was really reluctant to use Chloe or Kagami again), then it would probably be okay. She knocked on the door.

As before, Alya answered, slipping into the hall to talk. “Ladybug? I told you, I can’t—”

Ladybug made a lazy wave, silencing her friend. “Could you”— _Here it goes._ —“ask Luka and Max to come out? Discreetly?”

Alya’s eyes popped wide, darting down to Ladybug’s hands to verify that they indeed held two Miraculous boxes. “No way!” she whispered. “Max and Luka? Who—”

“You have to keep it secret, Alya,” Ladybug warned. “Promise?”

Alya pouted a little, but crossed her heart. “Promise.” They both knew it wouldn’t take her long to match the friend to the superhero, so her own curiosity about it would be sated soon, anyway. Alya disappeared inside, and Ladybug waited patiently in the hall for half a minute until Luka came out.

“Ladybug.” He smiled. Funny, it wasn’t the same soft, warm smile he usually gave her when she was herself. It was more like the smile he used for . . . well, everyone else.

She handed him the Snake Miraculous. “We’ve got a big one.”

He nodded and took the Miraculous.

Max came out. Luka froze like he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to make some excuse. Max goggled at Luka, then at the jade bracelet Luka was in the middle of putting on.

Ladybug sighed and handed Max the Horse Miraculous. “I didn’t have time to come up with a secret way to get you out separately. We cool?”

The boys grinned at each other as Max took his Miraculous. “We’re cool,” they both said, then transformed.

#

The team which Carapace had mentally dubbed ‘Ladybug and da Boys’ made quick work of Ikari Gozen. It had seemed quick to Carapace, anyway, though Viperion told them it had taken seven tries before they’d gotten it right. Carapace wondered how it would have gone down if Rena had been here instead of the other two.

While Cat Noir was down on the street talking to the old, blind lady that Ikari Gozen had turned into, the others followed Ladybug into an empty alley. They’d all used their special powers and would change back in a matter of minutes, but she’d called them all over together. Carapace waited to see how she wanted to play this.

“You guys did great tonight,” Ladybug said, standing in a hands-on-hips classic superhero pose which she made look totally natural. “How would you all feel about hanging onto your Miraculouses for a while?” Their eyes lit up, and she added quickly, “Not permanently. It’s just that with things the way they are, I’ll probably be relying on you three more if Cat Noir and I need help, and it would be nice not to have to retrieve your Miraculouses every time.”

Carapace was already in full-on fist-pump celebration, but Viperion said quietly, “With things the way they are?” with some secret meaning behind the words which Carapace didn’t really get.

Ladybug shifted to fiddle with her hands, suddenly looking a lot more like a shy girl than a superhero. “Our female colleagues are on, uh, maternity leave, so I can’t call on them. And I . . . may soon not be able to take as much of an active role as I normally do.”

_Ohhh._ “You’re pregnant, too?” Carapace blurted.

Ladybug winced. “Yes.”

Carapace frowned. “And Cat Noir is still letting you throw yourself at supervillains?” A thought occurred to him. “Wait, is the baby his?” It was bad enough that he let her do that as her partner. If he was also the baby’s father—

“No, it’s not his! And he . . . doesn’t know yet. I’ll tell him soon.”

Viperion laid a hand on Ladybug’s shoulder. “We’re here for you, Ladybug. Whenever you need us.”

“Indeed,” Pegasus agreed.

“Totally, dude,” Carapace added. His bracelet beeped. “But we’d better get going for now.”

Pegasus held up a finger. “One last question. Does allowing us to keep our Miraculouses mean that we should come help whenever there’s a supervillain, or should we still wait for you to retrieve us?”

“For now, wait until I get you or contact you,” Ladybug said.

Carapace could live with that. Even if he wasn’t allowed to transform whenever he wanted, knowing he could was still pretty awesome. And it would be fun having Wayzz around.

When Viperion’s bracelet also beeped, they got moving. Carapace jumped up to the roof of the nearest building and headed back to his place. Viperion and Pegasus stayed together, a hundred feet or so ahead of him. After following them for a while with neither of them splitting off, he wondered if the two knew each other. Maybe they were roommates or brothers.

But the closer Carapace got to his own home, the stranger it was that the other two heroes were still going the same direction he was. And when they both actually dropped through a window of his building, his curiosity was at maximum.

A few seconds after them, Carapace reached the window and dropped through it into the hallway outside his home—just in time to see Viperion and Pegasus turn into Luka and Max.

Carapace burst into laughter. The two other boys spun toward him in shock.

“Carapace?” Max asked. “You followed us?” He sounded betrayed.

Carapace shook his head, still laughing. “Dude.” As he walked toward them, he saw Alya come out of his place, shutting the door behind her, to stand there with a smug look. The other boys were too busy staring at him to notice her. “Wayzz, shell off,” he said, then threw his arms around his friends’ shoulders.

They both blinked at him in shock, then laughed.

“You boys have fun?” Alya asked.

While Max froze like he’d been caught out, Luka looked carefully from Nino to Alya a couple times before pointing at Alya and saying, “Rena Rouge.” It wasn’t a question.

Max made a tiny choking sound of surprise.

“We’re just one big, happy family,” Nino said. “Man, I wish I could tell my boy Adrien about this.”

“And I wish I could tell my girl Marinette,” Alya agreed, “but I’m pretty sure we already know more than we should, and Ladybug would not be happy about us spreading our secret identities around any more.”

Of course she was right, and Nino did _not_ want to get on Ladybug’s bad side, especially now. “Oh, Alya, guess what?” Nino jog-hopped over to her and held up his wrist. “Ladybug said we could keep our Miraculouses!”

Wayzz floated up beside him and bowed to her. “Greetings.”

Alya’s jaw dropped. “What? No fair!”


	23. Chapter 23

Mrs. Tsurugi was embarrassed and frustrated about having been akumatized again. Cat Noir played on those feelings to convince her that if Kagami had disappeared with a friend, she was probably fine, and it might be a good idea to give her a little bit of freedom tonight if she was so desperate for it. It wasn’t until she’d called her daughter and confirmed that she was fine that Mrs. Tsurugi really gave in to the idea, but she did tell Kagami to be home by eleven, so Cat Noir chalked it up as a win.

His ring was down to its last pad when he finally got Mrs. Tsurugi to someone who could help her get back to wherever she wanted to go. He barely had time to duck into a subway tunnel before he lost his transformation. Thankfully, no one was around to see it.

He ran back to the pizzeria, where Kagami was waiting for him. “It’s fine now,” he told her as he helped her up from sitting on the closet floor.

“I know.” She dusted off the back of her skirt. “Mother called me. She said I’m allowed to be out as long as I’m back by eleven.”

“That’s great! We can still make it to the gaming night, then.”

They thanked the pizzeria lady (Adrien made a note to send her something nice tomorrow) and headed for Nino’s.

Adrien could hear laughing, talking, and loud gameplay even from out in the hall. When Nino opened the door, the racket only got louder. It was a beautiful sound.

“Dude!” Nino greeted Adrien with a hug. “You missed all the action. Everyone took a break from gaming to watch the live news coverage. That supervillain was legit.”

Adrien chuckled. “No, I got plenty of the action before Ladybug showed up. Ikari Gozen was Kagami’s mom.” He gestured to his friend, standing quietly to the side where Nino didn’t immediately notice her.

“Ohh.” Nino’s eyes moved to Kagami, looking a little worried.

“After she became herself again, she gave Kagami permission to come here, though.”

Nino beamed. “In that case, welcome to the coolest place to be in Paris tonight, Kagami.”

“Thank you, Nino. I . . . appreciate the invitation,” Kagami answered stiffly.

They went in, and some of Adrien’s friends noticed him and waved or shouted a hello. Alya even greeted Kagami.

“Help yourself to snacks,” Alya told them both. “You might have to nuke the pizza if you don’t like it cold.”

“It all looks great.” Adrien couldn’t complain about the dishes made by his personal chef, but junk food was its own kind of luxury. And after the workout that Ikari Gozen had given them, not to mention all the fencing beforehand, he was starving. He loaded up his plate and grabbed a soda.

Kagami looked at the spread dubiously. “You actually eat this?”

“It’s pretty good.”

“There is little to nothing of nutritional value here.”

“Maybe not, but it tastes good and it’ll fill you up. Aren’t you hungry?”

She put a hand to her stomach as if that would help her decide. “Yes.”

“No one’s gonna force you to eat it, but no one’s gonna stop you, either. If you really want something healthier, you can ask Nino what else he has.”

Kagami shook her head. “I . . . would like to try it.” She made herself a little sampler plate, and they went into the living room where everyone else was.

Rose, Juleka, Marinette, and Max were huddled around the TV, playing Mario Kart. Adrien squeezed onto the couch beside Alix. There wasn’t a lot of room left, but before Adrien could find a spot for Kagami to sit, she sat on the floor, leaning against the couch to the right of his legs.

Adrien got up immediately. “Kagami, here, you sit on the couch. I’ll take the floor.”

She tried to protest, but he took her hand and lifted her to her feet, directing her to the seat he’d just left. After he sat in the spot on the floor where she’d been, he happened to glance at Marinette and saw her watching him (the game was on a results screen), so he gave her a wink. He couldn’t very well let a pregnant friend sit on the floor while he took the couch, after all, even if she wasn’t heavily pregnant yet. He’d kind of expected Marinette to smile back in acknowledgment of his chivalry, but she only looked vaguely sick and went back to the game.

Nino had also taken a seat on the floor, so Adrien leaned over and asked as quietly as he could so Marinette didn’t hear, “Is Marinette feeling okay?”

Nino shrugged. “She had to go lie down for a while. She missed the whole supervillain fight and didn’t come out until ten minutes after it was over, but she said she feels fine now.”

Adrien frowned at Marinette, worried. So, she wasn’t feeling totally well. But that was normal to some degree, with her condition. He’d have to keep an eye on her tonight to make sure she didn’t have any more problems.

After a few more rounds of Mario Kart, Kagami had finished her food. Adrien tapped her ankle to get her attention and asked, “Do you want to play?”

“I don’t know how to play video games,” she answered.

“This one’s really easy to pick up, at least the basics. You pretty much only move one stick and push two buttons.”

He could see the desire in her eyes even as she said, “I . . . don’t . . .”

A round had just gotten over, so Adrien called to the players, “Kagami wants to try!”

Rose offered her controller. “You can take my spot!”

“Have you played this game before?” Max asked.

Kagami shook her head.

Max got up and came over, holding out a hand in invitation to sit closer to the TV. “Then you can take my spot, and I’ll coach you.”

Adrien nodded encouragement, and Kagami went over to sit on a big pillow where the players were sitting. He asked Rose, “Could I take your spot, if you don’t mind?”

She eagerly handed Adrien her controller, and he moved to sit with the others. Sitting cross-legged, his knee touched Marinette’s, but he didn’t move it. There was something oddly comforting about the simple contact.

After a while and a lot more switching around of players and games, Adrien was sitting at the table with Nino and Max, chatting about some of the new games coming out. As Max was describing the complicated inventory management system of an upcoming game, Adrien noticed that Max’s usual rectangular glasses had been replaced by oval frames. They actually looked a lot like what the Horse Miraculous had looked like in camouflage mode in that brief time between Ladybug giving the Miraculous to him during the Startrain ordeal and Max transforming. Exactly like it, in fact.

Had Ladybug allowed Max to keep his Miraculous? She hadn’t mentioned anything to Cat Noir about it, though they’d both had to take off quickly after the fight. He glanced across the room to where Luka was sitting with Marinette, strumming out some tunes for her. Adrien wasn’t sure what the Snake Miraculous would look like in camouflage form on Luka, nor was he sure about which bracelets Luka usually wore, but there was a bangle on his left wrist which _could_ have been it. He didn’t usually wear any bracelets on his left wrist, did he? But Viperion did wear his Miraculous there.

Adrien—or rather, Cat Noir—would need to have a little talk with his partner the next chance he could. Although how would he bring it up? Ladybug knew he knew _about_ Max, but she didn’t know he actually _knew_ Max, and she had no reason to believe that Cat Noir knew who Viperion was. Maybe she’d bring it up hersel—

“Earth to Adrien.” Nino waved a hand in front of Adrien’s face. “You listening, buddy?”

Adrien knew he should answer, but all he could see was the new bracelet on Nino’s wrist. One which Adrien was sure he’d seen before—on Master Fu.

_No way._ Adrien felt suddenly dizzy. Master Fu’s kwami was the turtle, Wayzz. And Master Fu obviously wasn’t Carapace, which meant . . . _My best friend is one of my superhero team_ _mates_ _._ A huge grin appeared on Adrien’s face, and he just couldn’t make it go away.

“Uh, dude?” Nino said.

Adrien shook himself and looked at Nino. Yes, they wore masks, but why hadn’t he spotted the resemblance before? And Carapace was with Rena Rouge, which meant that _Alya was Rena Rouge_ , and Adrien’s mind was exploding with happy fireworks and _he really needed to keep it together!_ “Yeah, Nino?”

“You were staring at Marinette and Luka for like a full minute, and now you can’t stop grinning,” said Nino. “What’s up?”

“I just . . . I . . . ” He scrambled for a reason, but he didn’t have to try too hard, because there was an easy answer that was actually true. “I’m just really happy for her. The two of them are such a good match. They’re so easy together, like you and Alya, and it’s obvious he really cares about her. Do you think they’re dating yet?”

Strangely, Nino and Max exchanged an uncomfortable glance. Was Adrien’s interest in Marinette’s happiness too weird? Wasn’t it normal to want to support someone important to you when they found someone who could make them happy? Or were they expecting him to be jealous because it was Adrien’s baby she was having, not Luka’s?

“Uh, no,” said Nino. “I don’t think so.”

“Yeah, I guess she’d probably tell us if they were,” Adrien agreed.

Neither Nino nor Max continued the discussion about Marinette and Luka, so Adrien tried to pay more attention as they went back to their games talk. But it was hard to concentrate when he’d just learned that even more of his friends than he’d thought were part of his superhero family, too. In fact, all of them whose identities he knew were. Even Kagami/Ryuko and Marinette/Multimouse, despite Ladybug saying she wouldn’t be able to call on either of them again. Now he hoped more than ever that she’d change her mind. The friendship that he felt with all of them had just gained an extra layer, tying them together, solidifying around them like amber, making them strong. Telling him he wasn’t alone.

He chatted with Max and Nino—his friends, his teammates—until he noticed Luka and Marinette going into Nino’s room. They left the door open, and with the angle that he had, Adrien could see them sitting on the bed, talking with their heads close together. He was happy to see Marinette and Luka getting close, because he valued them both so much and wanted to see them happy.

If Ladybug ever agreed to be with him and let him make her happy, Adrien was totally going to be one of those people who wouldn’t rest until all of his friends were happily married, too. Like some busybody old woman. He could feel it.

He giggled a little at himself—but not too much, because he didn’t want to get any more strange looks.

#

When Luka had leaned in and asked to talk to her, Marinette had thought nothing of going into the only quieter, more private place that wasn’t one of Nino’s family member’s bedrooms or the bathroom, but once they were in Nino’s bedroom, she realized that it could look really weird if anyone had seen them. Not that she would ever consider doing something bedroom-like with Luka, nor did she think he would try anything, but after everything that had happened lately, she really didn’t want anyone thinking she _might_ , so she made sure to leave the door wide open. The only problem with that was that it let a lot of the noise from the living room in, so he had to sit pretty close to her on the bed and lean in to talk.

“So, uh, what did you want to talk about, Luka?” she asked, sitting straight with her hands cupped over her knees.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking the past few weeks. I finally decided something, and I wanted to tell you. Because I always want to be a hundred percent honest with you, Marinette.”

“Okay . . . ”

Luka looked deeply into her eyes. The intensity of it sucked her in and scared her away all at the same time. “You’re the most amazing girl I’ve ever met. I told you I’d be here for you, if things didn’t work out with you and Adrien. And I still think you’re amazing. I doubt I’ll ever find another girl as amazing as you. I’ve loved you since we met, and I still love you.”

Marinette was blushing and totally unsure how to respond. “I . . . think you’re great, too, Luka. But I’m not sure—”

He held a finger to her lips. “Please, let me finish. I need to say this because I don’t want to mislead you at all, even by . . . letting you think nothing’s changed.”

“Nothing’s changed?” she repeated, confused.

He clasped his hands in his lap uncomfortably. “The fact is, Marinette, I’m just not ready to take on the responsibility of a baby. I was lucky to not get affected by Fairy Grandmother’s attack the same way you and Adrien and some of the others did. And I really, really wish I was a stronger, more mature person who could say that you being pregnant right now didn’t change anything.”

Something inside Marinette felt like it was slipping down, down through her body and into her feet.

“But it does,” Luka continued. “It’s not because the baby isn’t mine. It’s not because it’s Adrien’s. It’s all me. If I’d been like you—if I’d actually made a baby with someone—I’d do my best for the baby and the mother. If it had been you, I’d have asked you to marry me every day until you agreed. But that didn’t happen. I wasn’t forced into taking on this responsibility the way you were. Which means I have a choice. And I feel like total scum for saying this when you don’t have the option to, but . . . I don’t feel ready to commit to parenthood right now. And if you did want to be with me, that’s what it would mean.”

“Luka, I didn’t—”

“I know you never asked me to. But I told you I’d be there for you, and I needed you to know that . . . I’ll have to go back on that promise. I know this makes me a terrible person, but I can’t be there for you right now. Not like that. Not with this. I’ll still be there for you as your friend, the same way that all your other friends are there for you. But I can’t . . . ” Luka turned toward her, taking her hand in his. “If you still haven’t found a guy you want to be with when we’re in our twenties, I’ll try again to win you over. I think I could be a parent then. But I’m not asking you to wait that long. If you have someone you want to be with, someone who can commit to being a father to your child, I don’t want you to hesitate because of me. I hope that person for you is Adrien, but even if it’s someone else, I’ll be happy for you.”

Luka’s hand was warm and comforting on hers. It didn’t feel like he was pre-breaking up with her, even though that was kind of what this was. “Thank you for telling me.” And she really was grateful. Now that he’d eliminated the possibility, she had to admit that she _had_ grown some feelings for him. They were still totally overshadowed by Adrien, but his love confession and the way he’d made her feel had still been really nice.

“I really hope we can still be good friends,” he said.

She squeezed his hand and smiled at him. “Of course we can, Luka.”

He wrapped his arms around her and held her in an embrace that felt warm and loving and . . . worth coming home to. “Thank you, Marinette.”

“I appreciate you being honest with me. It can’t have been easy to say all that.”

“No. But I needed to do it.” He pulled back and gave her a small, sad smile. “Want to go back in there?”

She nodded, and they went back into the loud, bustling living room together. Marinette wasn’t sad, exactly. She was so in love with Adrien that she hadn’t gotten as far as wanting to be with Luka. But it was still rough to have that option pulled away from her anyway. Until they were in their twenties, at least. If she was still single then . . . But she couldn’t find it in her heart to hope for that.

As they found seats among their friends, she glanced to Adrien, who was watching her with a happy, contented look on his face. What had caused that look? Marinette wanted to hope it was her, but she couldn’t imagine how it could be.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may not update again until Monday. We'll see. I'm not making as much progress on writing this fic as I need to be, and if I completely lock myself away from the internet for a few days, I'll have better chances of making progress.

A few weeks later, Adrien was talking with Nino in the school courtyard before classes when Alix stormed through, going straight to the locker room without greeting anyone.

“Did she look ticked to you?” Nino asked him.

Adrien nodded. “I wonder if Kim made another stupid bet with her.”

Some of the girls followed her into the locker room to check on her, but the boys didn’t risk it.

Five minutes later, Nathaniel arrived with a scabbed-over split lip and a dazed expression.

“Ohh,” said Nino. “It’s _that_ kind of problem.”

Since Alix was still in the locker room, Adrien asked Nathaniel, “What happened?”

Nathaniel blinked several times before focusing on Adrien and Nino. “Alix had her first ultrasound appointment.”

“Everything’s all right, isn’t it?” Adrien asked.

“Yeah. Everything’s fine. She . . . she let me go with her, and . . . ” Nathaniel was having trouble not staring off into space again. “ . . . we could hear the heartbeats.”

Adrien’s own pulse sped up at the thought. “Really?”

“It’s actually happening,” breathed Nathaniel. “We . . . we really made . . . life.”

The weight of his statement hung in the air. Adrien hadn’t heard anything from Marinette about her first ultrasound appointment yet, but while he’d already been hoping she’d invite him, suddenly he was prepared to beg her to let him come.

“Wait,” said Nino. “Did you say ‘heartbeats’?”

#

Once the girls got Alix cornered in the locker room, they didn’t have trouble getting her to explain the problem.

“Twins,” she said through clenched teeth.

From the back of the group, Sabrina squealed in terror. “You’re gonna burst open like that guy in _Alien_!”

Marinette told Sabrina to shut up.

Alix just rolled her eyes. “The doctor says it’ll probably be fine, but yeah, this is gonna suck even more than it already was.”

“Twins! How cute!” Rose enthused. “Are they identical or fraternal?”

“I’m sure it’s too early to know that yet, Rose,” Alya said.

“You probably won’t be able to tell until they’re out,” Juleka guessed.

“Is that why you hit Nathaniel again?” Marinette asked.

Alix shrugged.

“But . . . how is that his fault?” Marinette honestly wasn’t sure if twins even could run on the father’s side, but even if so, it had hardly been a conscious choice.

The anger in Alix’s posture faded, and she let out a breath. “Yeah, I know. I just get so angry about all this, and . . . ”

“And he’s an easy target?” Marinette really wished she could recruit Bunnyx now and aim all that anger at Hawk Moth, where it belonged.

Alix winced. “Do you think I’m bullying him?”

Alya patted Alix’s shoulder. “I wouldn’t go that far, but you probably should lay off him a little.”

“Ooh, look at these!” Rose, who had started scrolling through her phone, held it out to show them a pair of baby jumpers.

“Don’t you think it’s a little early to plan their matching wardrobe?” Alya asked her.

Rose ignored the question and went back to scrolling. “Twins are the cutest! One for each of you!”

Alix groaned.

Juleka asked her, “Do you know the genders yet?”

Alix shook her head, and Alya answered, “There’s still several weeks before any of us will be able to tell that.”

“We did get to hear the heartbeats, though,” Alix said.

Marinette exchanged a glance with Alya to see if her best friends suddenly felt like she had a stomach full of butterflies, too, but it was hard to tell. The conversation continued around her, but Marinette was too distracted to participate. She slipped around the other girls to the area in front of the girls’ bathroom, then checked her phone. The confirmation text from her gynecologist was still there. Her appointment was later this morning. Her mother was planning to go with her, just like she’d gone to her previous appointments. Marinette hadn’t thought the first ultrasound would be anything special.

It was probably too late to tell Adrien about it, with his busy schedule. Not that he’d even be interest—

“Hey,” said a soft, gentle voice right beside her.

She jumped in surprise. “Adrien!” He was standing not two feet away from where she’d been leaning against the wall.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to surprise you. Is . . . everything all right in here?”

Marinette nodded, clutching her phone to her chest like some kind of security blanket. “Alix is freaking out because she found out . . . ” Too late, it occurred to her that this wasn’t her news to tell.

But Adrien nodded. “Twins, yeah. Nathaniel told us. I don’t blame her for freaking out.”

Which meant he’d heard about Alix’s ultrasound. Was he here because he was wondering when hers was, or was she reading too much into it? She fidgeted with her phone, trying to decide whether or not to bring it up.

“So, um . . . ” He grasped his elbow with his other hand like he didn’t know what to do with himself either. “ . . . is your ultrasound soon?”

Her heart leapt. Maybe he did want to go. “It’s this morning.”

His eyes widened in surprise. “Today? Wow, that soon.”

“Sorry. I didn’t know you’d want to know.”

“I didn’t either,” he answered, and they both gave an awkward chuckle at their mutual cluelessness surrounding everything pregnancy related. “Would you mind if I . . . ”

At the same time he started talking, Marinette asked, “Do you want to—”

They stopped and laughed again; it eased the tension. He did want to go. He wanted to be with her—for this, anyway. Maybe it didn’t mean much in the long run, but it made her happy,. “It’s at eleven, so we’ll have to miss some school.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” he said with a reassuring smile that made her melt.

#

When it was time to go, Adrien heard Marinette’s voice behind him. “Miss Bustier, I need to leave for my appointment.”

_Shoot_. He’d forgotten to check with the teacher about this before class started. Well, it couldn’t be helped now. He raised his hand. “And I’m going with her.”

“That’s fine,” Miss Bustier said with a smile. “Mylène, would you share your notes with them when they get back?”

“Sure, Miss Bustier,” Mylène said cheerfully.

Adrien and Marinette had made it half-way to the door when Kim called out, “The current record’s two. Go for triplets!”

The idea made Adrien flinch, and it put a horrified expression on Marinette’s face that he didn’t blame her for one bit. “Eeh, I think we’ll leave the record breaking to you, Kim,” he said. How exactly did one ‘go for triplets’ anyway?

Kim slumped dejectedly. “Ondine already checked that. It’s just one for us.”

“And one is plenty,” Miss Bustier said, ending the exchange so Adrien and Marinette could get going.

As they hurried through the school, Adrien could see the anxiety on Marinette’s face. “It’ll be fine,” he told her. “I’m sure it won’t be triplets.”

“But maybe there’s a problem. Maybe there’s something wrong. Maybe—”

Adrien took her hand, which instantly quieted her. “It’ll be fine,” he repeated, giving her hand a squeeze. “I’m with you.”

Her face turned a little pink. He wasn’t really sure what that meant in this context, but it hoped it meant he’d calmed her down some.

His bodyguard picked them up in the car right outside of school, and they drove to her house to pick up her mom. When Sabine got in the front seat, she greeted Adrien warmly. “It’s good of you to come with her, Adrien.”

“Should I have earlier?” he asked. It hadn’t occurred to him to find out if that was part of supporting her like he’d promised. Maybe it was. “I can come to any other appointments. Just let me know about them.”

“She needs someone there with her,” Sabine said, “but I’ll always go with her, unless for some reason I can’t. It’s good of you to offer. I’m sure she’ll let you know if she wants you to come.” From the way Sabine peeked back over the seat at her daughter, that last part looked like an instruction.

“I don’t want to intrude,” Adrien told Marinette, “but if it helps you to have me there, just say the word.”

Marinette nodded but didn’t have an answer for him about that yet. He really needed to not mess it up this first time.

As soon as they arrived at the doctor’s office, they were escorted back to a room and offered beverages.

Well, it wasn’t quite that smooth. Although Gabriel (or, more likely, Nathalie) had made sure that Marinette would never have to sit long in the gynecologist's waiting room, Adrien’s presence there immediately started drawing attention from the handful of other people. Even to anyone who didn’t recognize his face, a boy his age coming here with a girl and her mom painted a pretty clear picture of what exactly was going on, even though Marinette didn’t look visibly pregnant yet. Afraid that someone would snap a photo and post it online, Adrien went to the receptionist and quietly asked if they could get out of the waiting room any quicker. But before that message could get from the receptionist to whoever was meant to call Marinette back, a nurse appeared and called Marinette’s name. Adrien thanked the receptionist and hurried to catch up, only to get a questioning look from the nurse when he tried to go in.

Sabine saved the awkward moment by telling the nurse, “He’s with us.”

But Marinette was the patient, so the nurse looked to her. She nervously said, “H-he can come back.”

Without saying anything, Adrien followed Marinette and her mom through the narrow hallway and into a room with an inclined exam table set up next to what he assumed was an ultrasound machine. They all crowded in, and the nurse handed a gown to Marinette, looking askance at Adrien as she did so, and instructed, “You can keep your pants on. The doctor will be in shortly. Would you like anything to drink while you wait?”

They all politely refused. The nurse left, closing the door behind her. Adrien looked from the gown in Marinette’s hands to her pink face. A wave of heat rose in his own face. “I’ll wait outside while you change!” He couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

No one else was around in this particular section of the hallway, so Plagg popped out of his pocket. “Ugh, hospitals. I can’t stand the smell.”

“It’s not a hospital, Plagg. It’s a doctor’s office.” Adrien kept his voice low, aware that anyone could approach at any moment. “And how can _you_ complain about the smell of anything?”

“Cheese has a delicate, natural scent. Not like the chemicals and cleaners in these places.”

“Delicate?” Adrien repeated in disbelief.

The door opened, and Plagg darted back into Adrien’s shirt.

Marinette appeared in the barely-open doorway. “You ca-can come in.” The hospital gown she had on was huge and baggy on her, like they always are, and it looked . . . odd. It was kind of cute in a weird way, but people normally wore those when something was wrong, and it reminded him how she was here because he’d hurt her and how this was still hurting her.

And then she turned to walk over to the exam table, exposing a strip of skin all the way down her back, broken up by the line of her bra. Adrien tightened up on the inside. He had thought he was over the unwelcome memories and feelings, but all it took was a glimpse of skin she didn’t usually expose to make him feel hot and tight and nervous.

He forced himself to swallow and moved to sit in the empty chair beside Sabine while they waited. Sabine chatted with her daughter about nothing important, which seemed to help Marinette calm down. Soon, it felt like Adrien wasn’t even there. Or like he was intruding.

But Marinette had asked him to come—or had been trying to. He was sure of that.

The doctor came in, a pretty lady in her forties or so, and said hello to Marinette and Sabine. Then she turned to Adrien. “Adrien Agreste. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Dr. Sienne.”

He shook the hand she held out to him. “You know who I am?”

“Of course. I’d like to thank you. We’ve seen a higher than normal incidence of women being accompanied to their appointments by partners and friends, and a particularly large increase in teen fathers getting involved. I believe that’s thanks to your encouragement. I was wondering when I’d see you in here.”

Adrien shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Sorry. I didn’t think of it before.”

“That’s perfectly fine, and these are hardly usual circumstances. In a case like this, I’m not sure the usual term ‘partner’ even applies.”

Adrien’s head shook on its own, and his feelings came out before he’d even registered them. “No, it’s right. Marinette and I might only be friends, but when it comes to this, I _am_ her partner.” He met Marinette’s eyes. “I really mean that. I’m sorry about not thinking to ask about your appointments before. I’m gonna do better.”

Even through her obvious nerves, Marinette smiled. “Thank you, Adrien.”

While the doctor asked Marinette several questions Adrien didn’t even try to follow, Sabine patted his knee and said quietly, “You’re a good man, Adrien. Thank you.”

He was sure trying to be a good man, even though sometimes he felt drastically under-qualified.

Dr. Sienne told Marinette to lay back on the table and moved around to the other side to prep the equipment. The ultrasound machine, with its sounds and its monitor and all its wires, was kind of intimidating. Marinette was breathing a little fast, and Adrien sensed that someone should be at her side, holding her hand, but Sabine hadn’t gotten up from her chair. He glanced to the older woman, who was looking back at him.

_Oh, right. Me._ He got up and went over to stand beside Marinette. He didn’t take her hand, afraid of it being awkward if he was misreading things, but he stayed close and laid a hand beside her.

Dr. Sienne squeezed some gel onto the ultrasound wand, then moved the bottom of Marinette’s gown up to expose her stomach.

Adrien swallowed and fought back flashbacks when he saw all that skin. Then the doctor pressed the gel-covered wand onto it, and Marinette’s belly muscles twitched.

“Does it hurt?” he asked.

“No. Just feels weird.”

At first, Adrien watched the wand move over her stomach, mesmerized in a way that probably wasn’t healthy. It took his hand twitching for him to realize that some part of him wanted to touch her there, and that was really not okay. He shot a look to her face to see if she’d noticed him looking, but her eyes were locked on the monitor.

He followed her gaze, unable to make out much in the weird darkness and lines, but then the doctor said, “There’s the baby,” and pointed to a light blotch on the screen. The underwater sounds coming from the machine’s speakers suddenly shifted into a distinct rhythm. “And there’s the heartbeat,” said the doctor.

Adrien’s throat tightened, his attention wholly fixated on the weird blob on the screen and the familiar rhythm coming through the speakers.

Marinette’s hand latched onto his and squeezed.

He shifted his hand to grasp hers and squeeze it back. “That’s . . . that’s . . . ”

“Our baby,” Marinette breathed. She sounded _happy_.

For some reason, Adrien felt more wonder and amazement at the blurry, blobby image of a human baby than he had at seeing a kwami for the first time. The longer he stared, the more he could make out the head and the body, and maybe he could see the tiny limbs . . .

“Everything’s looking good,” said Dr. Sienne. “No problems. Everything’s normal. The baby appears to be perfectly healthy.”

“And there’s only one, right?” Marinette asked in a strained voice.

Dr. Sienne laughed. “Yes, only one.”

Marinette let out a loud _phew_.

Adrien smiled down at her and squeezed her hand again. “What’d I tell you?”

“You’re always right,” she said dazedly.

The doctor chuckled and told him, “You should get that in writing.”

Marinette blinked and blushed. “I don’t mean ‘always right’. I mean you’re always wrong. Often wrong. No, that’s not right.”

“How about we settle on I’m sometimes right,” Adrien suggested. It was hard not to laugh at her, with how cute she was being.

“Right. Yeah. That sounds . . . right.”

#

Maybe Adrien forgot he was holding her hand, because he kept holding it right up until the doctor wiped off the gel and told Marinette to get dressed. He left to wait in the hall. Her hand felt cold immediately.

Even though the ultrasound was no longer going, Marinette could still hear the heartbeat in her head. She didn’t have words to express the weirdness of seeing with her own eyes that there was actually a baby growing inside her. _Her_ baby. _Adrien’s_ baby. Even after all these weeks, it still didn’t feel real.

She was so, so glad he’d been there to share the moment with her. Did it feel any more real or surreal for him?

“Thank you for coming,” she told him in the car on the way back to school.

“I’m really glad I did,” he answered. “Thanks for letting me.”

“I’ll . . . let you know about my other appointments.”

“Does that mean I didn’t make things worse?”

“What?!” Why would he think that? Had she done something to make him think that?

He raised his hands to her. “Easy, Marinette. I was just afraid I’d do something to screw up and you wouldn’t want me to come anymore.”

“No, you didn’t!”

“Good. I do want to be involved, but I don’t want to do anything to add to your stress. So you let me know if I ever do something that you want me to stop or if you don’t want me to help or anything. Okay?”

“Ok—”

An earth-shaking roar rumbled around them. Marinette and Adrien leaned forward to see through the windshield. A giant lizard monster stomped down a cross-street several blocks down.

Fortunately, they’d just arrived at the bakery. “Mom, get inside!” Marinette shouted. “Adrien, I—I need to go to the bathroom! I’ll go in and walk back to school when things settle down, so you don’t need to wait for me.”

“All right.” He sounded a little uncertain about her plan, but she didn’t wait around. Apparently he didn’t, either, because by the time she transformed and leapt from her roof toward the monster, Adrien’s car was gone.


	25. Chapter 25

It needed all five of them to take down the giant lizard monster. As far as Cat Noir could tell, Ladybug hadn’t even hesitated to call in backup, since Carapace, Pegasus, and Viperion had arrived on the scene only a minute after he had.

Even though it was pretty terrifying how Dino-Dragon kept bashing holes in buildings and smashing cars flat, Ladybug was on top of her game. If it was impressive how she could coordinate plans between the two of them, often knowing just the right ways to use their powers, then seeing her coordinate a whole team that way was a rare treat.

Really, Cat Noir was having a hard time keeping his promise not to flirt with her.

As they fought the monster, he also kept an eye on Carapace. How had he never noticed Nino’s speech patterns coming from the other hero? If there’d been any doubt left in Cat Noir’s mind, it was gone now.

Once the villain was defeated, the three backup heroes took off (headed together in the direction of their school, Cat Noir noted) without giving back their Miraculouses.

“So, are we gonna talk about that, Milady?” Cat Noir asked, pointing a thumb behind him to indicate the other heroes.

Her Miraculous beeped, and she covered it instinctively. “Sure, Cat Noir, but can we do it later? I’m kind of in a hurry.”

“We’re almost always ‘kind of in a hurry’,” he pointed out.

Her shoulders slumped in acknowledgment of how right he was. He didn’t preen _too_ much about. “All right,” she said. “I guess I have a few minutes. But we need to find somewhere to transform and feed our kwamis.”

Cat Noir was all too aware of his own limited time. If Marinette got back to class before he did (and she was probably headed that way already, now that the monster crisis was over), he’d have to come up with an excuse for being late. If only he could get in on whatever excuse Nino and Max used.

They leapt onto a nearby rooftop that was mostly flat and high enough that they shouldn’t get spotted. A big, concrete chimney in the middle of it made a convenient barrier. Each of them took a side and dropped their transformations. Adrien sat down, took an emergency piece of cheese from his pocket, and gave it to Plagg.

“You gave those three their Miraculouses permanently, didn’t you?” he asked.

From the other side of the chimney, he could hear the tiny, mouse-like munching of a cookie. “Not permanently,” Ladybug—or whoever she was now that she wasn’t transformed—said. “It’s more of a . . . long-term assignment. They still can’t just use them whenever they feel like, though if Hawk Moth keeps throwing bigger and badder villains at us, I may need to give them the freedom to come without waiting for my call.”

“Did Master Fu tell you do that?” Adrien asked.

“I ran it by him, and he approved, but it was my idea.”

“Even though it meant giving up his own Miraculous for an unknown length of time?” Adrien hated the idea of giving up his Miraculous even for short periods. And after the slip-up that had led to him having to be Mister Bug, he knew that was an instinct he should listen to more.

“Master Fu can’t really use it anymore,” she answered. “Not very safely, anyway. He didn’t seem to mind giving it up for a while, under the circumstances.”

Adrien’s gut tightened. “And . . . what _are_ the circumstances?”

He heard her mutter, “Tikki, spots on,” and saw a flash of light behind him. Plagg had finished eating, so Adrien transformed as well. Ladybug stepped around the chimney and sat down beside him. “I’m pregnant.”

He’d known by now that it was likely, but hearing her say it still felt like a punch to the gut. There were too many thoughts and questions and worries swimming around in his head for him to say anything coherent, so what came out was, “What does that mean?”

She eyed him. “It means . . . I’m going to have a baby?”

He huffed out a laugh. “I meant, what does it mean for all of this?” He gestured between them, hoping she’d understand he was trying to indicate their costumes. “If you’re letting the other heroes keep their Miraculouses, what does that mean?”

“I’m . . . not exactly sure right now. But aside from anything else, at some point I’m going to be too big and awkward to fight villains very well.”

An image flashed into Cat Noir’s mind: Ladybug, heavily pregnant, swinging on her yo-yo toward a big, scary villain. It might have been hilarious, but it filled Cat Noir with a surge of protectiveness stronger than any he’d ever felt before. “You can’t do that,” he ordered. Which was weird. He didn’t usually _order_ Ladybug around, but when the words came out, they’d sure sounded like an order.

But Ladybug didn’t appear to have heard his tone like he had. “Yeah, that’s what I mean. I’ll be way too slow, and—”

“I mean you can’t. You might get hurt. Your baby might get hurt.” If something happened to Ladybug because Cat Noir was letting her go into danger when she wasn’t well enough to, he’d never forgive himself. And if something happened to Ladybug’s baby because she was being reckless, she’d never forgive herself, and he couldn’t risk that. Except . . . it wasn’t just that. Ladybug’s baby was _Ladybug’s baby_ , and for that reason alone Cat Noir knew he would willingly die to protect it if need be, no matter who the baby’s father was. A scowl creased the mask over his brows. “Does your baby’s father know you’re Ladybug?”

“What? No! Of course not!”

His scowl lessened a bit. “Good.”

“My identity’s a secret. No one knows except Tikki and Master Fu. Did you think I’d reveal it so easily?”

She was coming at him kind of hard, so he held up his hands. “It’s not that. It’s just . . . if he knew and didn’t say anything about . . . your safety . . . I’d be mad at him.”

Ladybug rolled her eyes. “I don’t need a boy to tell me about my safety.”

“What about your partner?”

She twitched in surprise.

“Can your partner talk to you about your safety?”

For a second, it looked like she’d go all ‘I can take care of myself’ on him, but then her eyes softened, and she laid a hand on his. “I appreciate the concern, Cat Noir, but you don’t have to say anything. I’ve already figured out I’ll need to lighten up with the superheroing. That’s why I let Carapace, Viperion, and Pegasus hold onto their Miraculouses. I don’t need to give up being Ladybug just because I’m pregnant—and with Hawk Moth sending these extra-strong villains at us more often, now’s not a good time to break in a new Ladybug, anyway. But if we have enough other team members, I can lead and coordinate everyone, then be there to capture the akuma.”

Cat Noir gave a terse nod of approval. “Good. I like this plan. You stay back out of danger, and we can be your meat puppets.” He grinned. “I’m sure the other guys’ll be glad to have you pulling their strings.” _I know I love having you pull mine_ , he didn’t say.

She shook her head. “I may try to stay back from the front line, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be out of danger. But I do still have superpowers and my costume to protect me, so it’s not like it’ll be as risky as it would be if I didn’t have my Miraculous.”

Those were good points. Cat Noir was torn. On the one hand, he wanted her and her baby out of danger until she was at full . . . well, not full strength, but until she wasn’t pregnant anymore. On the other hand, he was afraid that if she gave up being Ladybug for that long, she wouldn’t ever return to it and he’d lose his partner forever. What a relief that it wasn’t his decision to make. But he would be there to remind her to stand back and let the non-pregnant heroes handle things if he needed to.

“So, what about you, Kitty?” Ladybug’s tone was teasing. “Do you have a kitten on the way?”

He gulped. “Y-yeah.” He hated the weakness in his voice and the tightness in his throat. He hated how _ashamed_ he sounded. He wasn’t ashamed of Marinette or their baby, and he’d hate for her to ever think he was. But admitting to the woman he loved that he was having a baby with someone else was . . .

The playfulness in Ladybug’s eyes disappeared so fast, it was clear it had mostly been forced anyway. “It’ll be all right, Cat Noir.”

He cleared his throat and desperately searched for a different topic. “Is it my imagination,” he said because he could only pretend not to notice for so long, “or do our three backup dancers seem like they know each other outside of the costumes?”

Ladybug groaned, her head leaning back until it knocked against the chimney. “Some of that was my fault, but I’m pretty sure some of it was them not being careful enough.”

“But you’re still using them.”

“I know it’s not safe. They’ve all been akumatized before, and if Hawk Moth does it again, all their identities could be compromised. But with all the girls out of commission for the time being, it’s either stick with them or find new people.”

“There’s King Monkey,” Cat Noir pointed out. “Master Fu’s the only one who knows who he is.”

She tapped her chin in thought. “That’s true. It wouldn’t hurt to have another team member, especially another one whose identity is still secret like ours. I’ll ask Master Fu what he thinks about bringing King Monkey on board.”

Cat Noir’s chest puffed up with pride at having his suggestion taken so well. Plus, it would be interesting to have King Monkey on the team. Whoever he was, he seemed like a fun guy, and that special monkey power was something else.

And even though he knew there was no point bringing his next observation up now, maybe bringing it up now would lay some groundwork for bringing it up again later. “I know Hawk Moth knows who Ryuko and Queen Bee are, so I get why you don’t want to use them, but is it really so bad that I know who Multimouse was?” Beside him, Ladybug stiffened. He didn’t know why the thought of recruiting Marinette again made her react that way, but he wanted to get his points out before she rejected the idea entirely. “If it’s okay for Carapace and Rena Rouge to know about each other, and for Carapace, Viperion, and Pegasus to know—and do you think that means they know about Rena?”—Ladybug winced like it was an unpleasant idea she hadn’t even considered but agreed was most likely true—“then what’s the problem with me knowing about Multimouse?”

Ladybug chewed on her lip for a second before shrugging the idea off. “It doesn’t matter for right now, anyway. Marinette’s in the same boat as the other girls.”

Cat Noir slumped. “Yeah.” He’d known as much, but he’d been hoping for maybe a little encouragement that she could be recruited back to the team after the babies were out. When he looked to Ladybug again, he saw her gaze had turned suspicious. Oh, yeah, he wasn’t really supposed to know Marinette that well. “I mean, we have to assume any girls are in that boat unless we’ve confirmed otherwise, right? Isn’t that what you meant?”

“R-right.”

Wait, how had _she_ known about Marinette being pregnant? Had she already stopped by and tried to recruit her? But if so, why wouldn’t she say so? Cat Noir decided not to push it, lest he give away too much of his own interest. Ladybug often played things close to the vest, even with her partner. If she was reconsidering giving a Miraculous to Marinette again, he didn’t want to inadvertently say anything which might dissuade her. Now more than ever, the idea of Marinette being part of his team excited him.

 _Funny how I know so many of the people Ladybug has given Miraculouses to_ , he thought despite himself. When he added that information to Alya’s early theory about Ladybug going to their school, then what happened with the kwamis in the science room . . . _No. Stop._ He forced himself away from that train of thought. As much as he wanted to know Ladybug’s identity, it had been made clear that if they ever learned who each other were, they’d have to give up their Miraculouses. And he wasn’t ready to make that trade just yet. He knew she wasn’t.

“How do you pick who to give them to?” he asked.

“The Miraculouses?”

He nodded.

“I . . . can’t say too much. But I don’t really figure it out until the need for a particular Miraculous comes up, then who to give it to usually just comes to me.”

“Or it’s a matter of necessity, like Pegasus?”

“Yeah. But I think that was . . . well, I don’t know if I’d call it fate, but maybe some Ladybug luck? I do think Max was a good choice. I . . . did try to give a Miraculous to someone once, and it didn’t end up being a good match.”

Yeah, Cat Noir didn’t need a reminder of that epic failure.

But she kept going anyway. “It was the Snake Miraculous, actually. Remember how I was looking for Adrien Agreste in order to give him a Miraculous so we could get help fighting Desperada? I did find him, but . . . long story short, he’s not Viperion. I really don’t know why it didn’t work out. But then, with Second Chance, I didn’t have any memory of anything that happened.”

“Why did you give it to him?”

He’d been fiddling absently with his claws, so the silence that stretched out for several seconds after his question made him look toward her. For some reason, he thought he could see a faint tinge of pink showing below her mask. “It was just a hunch,” she said. “But I guess hunches are wrong sometimes.”

“Well, don’t be afraid to recruit as many new people as you think we’ll need. I’d rather take the risk of too many people knowing too much than see you or your baby get hurt because you pushed yourself too hard to be your regular awesome self. And if you run out of ideas and need suggestions, I could probably think of a person or two who might make a good hero.” Then again, if she kept picking people he already knew, maybe he couldn’t.

“Thanks, Cat Noir.”

“Can I ask you something personal?”

“You can ask, but I can’t promise I’ll be able to answer.”

“I know. That boy you . . . That boy. Does he return your feelings for him?”

She looked away, but he saw the flash of pain in her eyes. “No.”

“He’s an idiot. I don’t know what you’re like when you’re not Ladybug, but you have to be amazing. If he can’t see that even when you’re having his baby, then he’s the biggest idiot in the world.”

“Are you trying to cheer me up?”

“Not exactly.”

“What about the girl who’s having your baby?” she countered before he could finish. “Are you and her a couple?”

He smiled fondly, thinking of Marinette. “No. We’re good friends, but we don’t see each other that way.”

Cat Noir could have sworn he heard Ladybug mutter very quietly, “Or maybe you’re as clueless as he is,” but he pretended not to hear. He was pretty sure Ladybug didn’t know Marinette as well as he did, or he’d have probably seen her around and been able to figure out who she was by now. His and Marinette’s friendship had taken a while to develop, partly because of the rocky start they’d had thanks to Chloe. Marinette was, if anything, often scared of or put off by him. That was pretty much going the opposite direction from being in love with him. Though he knew she was kind of a fan, thanks to his father’s designs, and with their best friends dating each other, Adrien had had more chances to get her a little more comfortable with him. But he wasn’t sure how to explain any of that to Ladybug.

Ladybug’s hand strayed absently to her belly, which didn’t show any sign yet of having a baby inside it. He’d seen that gesture a lot lately, though he didn’t know how aware the girls were of making it.

Cat Noir laid his hand on her other one where it rested on the roof. “I just want you to know . . . ” He waited until Ladybug met his eyes before continuing. “How I feel about you? Nothing’s changed.” His eyes flicked down to where her hand covered her belly before meeting her gaze steadily. “If that other boy doesn’t wise up and love you back, you need to know that I’m still here for you. For you _and_ your baby, forever, if you’ll have me.”

She made no response but to stare wide-eyed at him. He hoped it wasn’t because he’d made her uncomfortable again, but he’d had to say it. He wouldn’t bring up his feelings again unless she did, and it hadn’t actually been flirting, but he’d needed to know that she knew.

“I’d better go,” he said, getting up to leave so she wouldn’t feel pressured into responding. Whenever he saw her again, unless she wanted to talk about it, he’d pretend like he hadn’t said anything. As he ran across rooftops back toward school, though, it was hard to ignore the aching hope in his chest.


	26. Chapter 26

Master Fu was in agreement with Cat Noir’s suggestion, and the next time someone got akumatized, King Monkey showed up to help Ladybug and Cat Noir fight. This one wasn’t a particularly threatening villain, so Ladybug didn’t bother calling in extra help—but since she didn’t know who King Monkey really was or how to contact him, he showed up anyway.

Honestly, even though they didn’t really need him, Ladybug was glad to have him there. She hadn’t known how to answer Cat Noir after that declaration the other day, and she still didn’t know. She was in love with Adrien, but . . . for some reason, she couldn’t quite bring herself to shut Cat Noir down the way she always had before. It would really be better if she didn’t have to give him an answer at all.

So when she arrived on the scene to see Cat Noir and King Monkey playing stick fight (she could have called it ‘sparring’, but ‘playing’ was definitely the word that came to mind when she saw them) while a red, glowing villain floated a block away, apparently gathering power or something, she felt relieved.

Ladybug dropped down beside them, careful to avoid the swinging sticks. “You boys ready to take a break and defeat this villain?”

They broke off their playing and leaned on their sticks. Well, Cat Noir leaned. King Monkey somehow propped his staff up and hung off of it in a way that didn’t entirely comply with the law of gravity.

“Hey, Ladybug!” King Monkey said cheerily. “Guess we’re a trio now, huh?”

“Haven’t you been keeping up with the Ladyblog?” Cat Noir asked him. “We’re a whole team now.”

King Monkey shrugged. “Not today. Or are the others coming?”

Ladybug put her hands on her hips. “Didn’t your kwami tell you the deal?”

“He said something about only showing up when it looked really bad, but I’m sure once you get used to me, you’ll wonder how you ever got by without me.”

Ladybug rolled her eyes. “Just what I need, another cheeky boy with an ego.”

“Hey!” Cat Noir protested.

She booped his nose with her finger. “You know it’s true, or you wouldn’t have assumed I meant you.”

Cat Noir rubbed his nose and sulked.

Ladybug considered King Monkey. “I guess it’s fine if you help us whenever you’re able to.”

Cat Noir looked up in surprise. “Really?”

“Calling in help takes time,” she replied. “And it’s better to have too many teammates than too few. I’ve been thinking of telling the others the same thing. Hawk Moth has been throwing a lot of high-powered villains at us lately.” She looked down the street to the unmoving, glowing villain. “Usually, anyway. What’s this one’s deal?”

“Not sure,” answered Cat Noir. “He’s just been floating there since we got here. The glowing is getting brighter, so he might be charging up for an attack.”

“Better to get this done before he’s finished, then.” Ladybug pointed at the villain. “King Monkey, why don’t you do your thing?”

“Really?” He jumped off his staff, rolled in the air, and landed in a fighting pose. “Sure! Uproar!”

As Ladybug and Cat Noir watched, King Monkey ran straight at the villain. The villain didn’t move or react or even open his eyes as King Monkey hit him with his power. But as soon as King Monkey made contact, the glow burst out in a flash of light, leaving a small man in a weird costume lying on the ground as magical sparks and crackles surrounded him. King Monkey grabbed a book the man was holding and tossed it back to them.

Ladybug grabbed it, ripped the book in half, and an akuma flew out. She captured and de-evilized it, then threw her yo-yo into the air and shouted, “Miraculous Ladybug!” Once the magic ladybugs had passed, she and Cat Noir went over to the man now lying on the ground.

“You okay, sir?” King Monkey asked, helping the man up.

“Yes. Yes, I think so,” the man answered, looking between the three of them. “I’m sorry, Ladybug. I tried to fight off Hawk Moth, but I could not control my emotions enough to escape. The most I could do was fight back the anger inside me until you got here. Thank you for saving me.”

“You fought Hawk Moth after being akumatized?” she asked, amazed. She’d seen villains fighting Hawk Moth’s control briefly, but he seemed to be able to exert some kind of physical pain over them when they resisted his instruction, so it never lasted long. “That’s incredibly impressive, sir. Wasn’t it painful?”

“Oh, yes, very. But after seeing the lasting harm that Hawk Moth’s puppets can cause, I . . . I just couldn’t bear the thought of doing something like that myself. I think my horror at the thought allowed me to keep enough of my own mind to bear the pain.”

A familiar voice from behind a car said, “No way.”

The three heroes turned to see Alya filming them.

Caught, she ran over, but her phone only had eyes for the formerly akumatized man. “Sir, can I interview you for the Ladyblog? You’re the first person to ever fight back Hawk Moth’s control while actually being fully akumatized! This is amazing!”

The man blushed faintly at her exuberant praise. “Oh, I . . . well, I suppose.”

Ladybug smiled and left them to it. Alya had a good nose for news, and even with a new hero on the scene, she’d picked the bigger story to follow.

“You’re gonna detransform soon,” she told King Monkey, “so you’d better get back to wherever you came from.”

“Right! Later, guys!” King Monkey waved and ran off.

Cat Noir leaned on his stick. “He seems all right. Do you really mean to let the other guys decide when to transform, too?”

“Yeah. I’ll have to tell them next time I see them.” She needed to get back to school, but she hadn’t used her Lucky Charm, so she couldn’t use that as an excuse if Cat Noir wanted to push her for an answer to his declaration the other day.

“Cool. I think that’s a good idea. Well, I’d better get going. See you, Milady.” And then he was off.

_So, he’_ _s_ _. . ._ _not_ _going to pressure_ _me_ _for an answer?_ Ladybug let out a sigh of relief. Her kitty could be surprisingly mature and sensitive sometimes.

When Marinette slid back into her seat in class, Miss Bustier asked, “Marinette, you didn’t happen to see Alya in the bathroom, did you?”

“Um . . .” If the teacher was asking, then that must have been the excuse Alya had used. “Yeah. She said she was . . . almost done!” Marinette really hoped that was the right thing to say and Alya wouldn’t dawdle with the interview.

Miss Bustier sighed in mild exasperation and directed her attention up the aisle. “Kim, why are you wearing that sweatband on your head? This isn’t gym class.”

“But this is part of my signature style,” he argued. He was indeed wearing a brown and yellow sweatband.

“Since when?” Alix asked him.

“Since today. A true athlete has to be ready for a match to break out at a moment’s notice.” He struck a few athletic poses to emphasize his point.

Miss Bustier sighed. Then Alya came back in, and the teacher said, “Fine. If everyone’s done with the bathroom now, let’s get back to the lesson.”

#

Adrien was so distracted by Kim’s sweatband (it wasn’t exactly jewelry, but it was a new accessory; or was he just primed to see Miraculouses everywhere he looked these days?) that he didn’t hear the argument going on in the other end of the library until someone started shouting.

“Chloe! Would you lay off him?” It was Marinette’s voice.

Adrien shoved away from the table and ran around the bookshelves to see Marinette standing off against Chloe. Max stood behind Marinette with his fists clenched and an angry expression on his face.

_Not good_ , Adrien thought, coming closer.

“Well, he deserves it!” Chloe spat. “His idea was stupid! Why do I even have to get partnered with him?”

Nino stepped in and held up his hands, trying to de-escalate the situation. “Chloe, calm down. I know you’re just being hormonal, but—”

Adrien winced. _That_ was the wrong thing to say.

“I’m _not_ hormonal! _You’re_ hormonal!” Chloe shouted, then thrust a finger toward Max. “And _he’s_ an idiot!”

Rushing forward, Adrien grabbed Chloe’s arm and started pulling her away. “Chloe, you need to stop.”

“But Adrien—”

He gave her a hard look. “Stop.” It said something about how emotional she was at the moment that she actually did. He dragged her back to the table he’d been sitting at, out of view of the others, and sat her down. “Stay here and calm down, okay?”

Tears suddenly sprang to her eyes.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes.” She wiped the tears away with her sleeve. “Just . . . ”

“Hormonal?”

In a tiny whimper, she protested, “I’m not hormonal.”

He patted her head. “Stay here and try not to yell at anyone else, okay?”

When he went back around to where the others were, he saw Marinette staring toward him, arms crossed, clearly ready to defend her friends from Chloe if the other girl got away from Adrien.

So she didn’t see the akuma that fluttered through the door behind her, heading straight toward Max.

_Not good!_ Adrien pointed and shouted, “An akuma! Look out!”

Alya and Nino dove out of the way on instinct, and Marinette spun toward the akuma. “It’s going for Max!” she shouted.

Adrien hurried behind the bookcases, trying to find a place out of sight of the others where he could transform. But before he got all the way behind them, he heard something that made him stop to watch what happened.

As Max stood seething, careless of the akuma only a few feet away from him, Nino grabbed his shoulders and shouted, “Max, get a grip! Fight it off!”

His words had no effect, and the akuma got closer. When it was inches away from going into Max’s glasses— _His Miraculous!_ Adrien realized with horror.—Nino snatched the glasses off of Max’s face and tossed them to Alya, who juked back out of the way, ready to run if the akuma came after her.

Apparently Hawk Moth didn’t realize what had just happened or what had _almost_ just happened. Without missing a beat, the akuma changed direction to the pen Max was holding and was instantly absorbed.

While it was great that Hawk Moth hadn’t managed to actually akumatize a Miraculous again, this could still be extremely bad, since Max knew so many heroes’ identities. But while Adrien’s instinct was to transform and save Max before he had time to spill any secrets to Hawk Moth, Nino had a better idea, and Adrien could only watch in admiration.

“Max, look at me,” Nino said, keeping his hands firmly on Max’s shoulders, his face inches from Max’s, even as the butterfly outline appeared over Max’s face. “Don’t listen to him. Whatever he’s saying, ignore it. Listen to me, okay, Max? I need you to be strong, buddy. This is important. Do you understand? Fight him, Max.”

Max blinked, frowning, then clenched his eyes shut and shook his head. “No. No!”

The butterfly outline disappeared, and the akuma fluttered out of the pen and up toward the ceiling.

Adrien breathed a huge sigh of relief, then ran over to his friends. Nino had Max wrapped in a tight hug and was pounding his back furiously in excitement.

“That was amazing, Nino!” Adrien cheered. “And Max, you fought off Hawk Moth! You guys are awesome!”

Max took the glasses which Alya handed him and put them on. “Yes, well, thank you, Nino. I’m . . . embarrassed that I let it get that far. I need to learn better control over my emotions now.”

Adrien didn’t ask what he meant by ‘now’.

Alya and Nino shared a worried look. “Yeah,” said Alya. “I guess we all should.” Noticing Adrien, she added, “As many times as we’ve collectively been akumatized, we should all be working harder at that. Not that it’s easy with Chloe around, stirring things up for no reason.”

Adrien leaned closer to them and said in a low voice, “Nino was right. It’s just hormones. Not that that excuses it, but maybe you can forgive her?”

Max nodded. “I understand. And I’ll try to be more aware of that particular behavioral anomaly in the future and not take things so personally.”

Adrien clapped him on the shoulder. “Thanks, Max. Now I . . . need to go check on something.” That akuma had gotten away, after all, and since it couldn’t get Max, it would probably find someone else. Hawk Moth didn’t like to let a perfectly good akuma go to waste.

#

Marinette ducked into the bathroom, her feelings mixed about what she’d just seen.

“This is why it’s dangerous to know each other’s identities,” Tikki said.

Not too long ago, Marinette would have agreed with her. “I’m not so sure about that, Tikki. That kind of looked like a good reason _to_ know each other’s identities.”

“But Max was nearly akumatized! A few more seconds, and Hawk Moth could have known about all four of them!”

Marinette held up a finger. “But normally even _we_ focus more on defeating the villain than helping the person fight off Hawk Moth’s control. Nino and Alya would have done that too, if they hadn’t known about Pegasus, and then Hawk Moth would have akumatized a Miraculous holder _and_ learned the others’ identities. It’s only because Nino and Alya knew what was at stake that they did what they did.”

“True . . . ” Tikki admitted.

“Hasn’t there ever been whole teams of Miraculous holders before, Tikki?”

Tikki shrugged. “Once or twice, but it’s usually only one or a pair, and it’s very rare for any hero to know their partner’s identity.”

“But is that because it’s really what’s safest? Or is it because it’s what the Guardians and the kwamis keep telling everyone is what’s safest?”

Tikki was wearing an expression that said she didn’t like the direction Marinette’s questions were going. “We’re not basing that on nothing, Marinette. Really bad things have happened in the past when identities were revealed.”

Bad scenarios were easy enough to imagine, and things had gone way too close to such scenarios more than once. But good scenarios—images of teamwork and coordination that made Marinette’s heart race with excitement—weren’t too hard to imagine, either.

Marinette shook the thoughts away and refocused. “We can get into that later. Right now, I still need to capture that akuma before it gets someone else. Tikki, spots on!”

#

Hawk Moth was seething. He rarely akumatized people more than twice in a single day, but he’d been so furious at his complete inability to control the villain he’d dubbed Starburst, despite exerting tremendous pressure on the man, that when he’d felt the negative emotions coming from Adrien’s classmate, he hadn’t been able to resist.

He’d known immediately that something wasn’t right. Though he’d given the boy his usual spiel, he’d gotten the distinct impression the boy hadn’t been listening—at least not fully. And then the boy had actually pushed him away entirely, the negative emotion disappearing, just like Chloe Bourgeois had once done.

What was his mistake? Did akumatizing people multiple times allow them to build up some kind of mental immunity to him? Mr. Romier certainly showed no signs of becoming more resilient to him. Perhaps some people were able to resist him more easily because they had—or developed—a stronger will than others.

He would ponder his mistake later. Right now, he wanted to akumatize some willing soul and use them to vent his anger. After taking out Starburst so easily, Ladybug and Cat Noir were probably feeling pretty smug, maybe even thinking Hawk Moth was losing his touch. He needed to show them how far that was from the truth.

And there was the matter of the other Miraculouses that were now so frequently in play. Those heroes were newer and less practiced. If he could take their Miraculouses, he’d have more power to turn against Ladybug and Cat Noir. The stronger Hawk Moth made his villains, the more Miraculouses came out of hiding. It was only a matter of time before he managed to get one of them. With that one, he’d have greater strength to take another, and the snowball would continue to roll until it was an avalanche he’d use to crush Ladybug and Cat Noir.

After due consideration, he took out his phone and called his assistant. “Nathalie, how are you feeling?”

“I’m fine, sir. Can I do something for you?”

“I said before that I wouldn’t need your help. However, while it is far too dangerous for you to become Mayura again, I do believe I could use the help of Catalyst. If you feel up to it.”

He could hear the pleasure in her voice when she answered, “I’ll be right there.”


	27. Chapter 27

By the time Ladybug reached the roof of the school, there was no sign of the akuma or where it had gone. With a puff of frustration, she scanned the skies, using her yo-yo in telescope mode to search for any sign of the akuma.

“Ladybug?”

Cat Noir’s voice surprised her, nearly making her drop the yo-yo. “Cat Noir? What are you doing here?”

He walked toward her across the roof and took up a spot next to her, casually propping his stick on his shoulders, hands looped over the stick. “I was, uh, driving by, when I spotted an akuma fluttering around. What brings you here?”

“Same, more or less. Did you lose sight of it, too?”

He frowned, looking out over the city. “Yeah. Do you think Hawk Moth really tried to akumatize someone so soon after the last time?”

“He must have. And if the akuma was flying away from people, his intended victim must have gotten their emotions in check before it could happen.”

“Lucky.”

Not luck at all, but she couldn’t tell him that. “When that happens, it usually finds a different victim right away, but I’m not seeing anything.”

“Maybe he gave up for the day?” Cat Noir asked hopefully.

Ladybug doubted it. “Maybe. But stay alert. I’d say we should stay in costume and keep our eyes peeled, but I have things I need to do, and if he didn’t choose another victim immediately, it could be hours—or he really might have given up.” She already had enough missed classes and missed whole afternoons to make her teachers and parents upset. But it was always necessary, so at least she knew in her own mind that she was doing her best to be responsible, whatever they might think. Skipping because of a suspicion or a ‘maybe’ would be pushing too far into ‘irresponsible’ territory, and she wasn’t entirely sure detentions and groundings wouldn’t be justified at that point.

“I hear that,” Cat Noir agreed. “I’d be in trouble if I bailed on what I was doing, too. My schedule’s packed, and it’s hard enough to find excuses for bailing when I really need to. I can’t afford to spend time patrolling the city just in case something _might_ happen. Not that I wouldn’t appreciate being able to spend more time with you, Milady.”

Ladybug gave the skyline another scan before returning her yo-yo to her hip. “I think we’ve lost the akuma for now. I need to go. Stay alert, Kitty.”

She hopped over a few rooftops before dropping down between buildings, breaking Cat Noir’s line of sight on her (if he happened to still be watching) before doubling back.

#

They were five minutes into their next class when everyone’s phone dinged at once. That typically only meant one thing.

Alya was the first to snatch up her phone. “Akuma alert,” she said, confirming what most of them had instantly assumed. But she followed that up with a hollow-sounding, “Oh, no.”

The rustles of movement filled the room as everyone who hadn’t already been reaching for their phone scrambled for it. Miss Bustier didn’t even try to calm them down.

Adrien dug his phone from his bag, sharing a worried look with Plagg for a bare instant before checking the alert on his phone.

Behind him, Marinette gasped. “Scarlet Moth? Again?”

Adrien scanned the alert, noting the epicenter of the attack and the brief description of the threat. There were a few photos already. All of the supervillains were the telltale red of Scarlet Moth victims. All of them were female, too. It was too early to tell if that was significant, but Adrien got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Shooting a look around the room, he could see Nino and Max—and, he noted with a small thrill, Kim—straightening to attention in the same way he’d automatically done. The call to action had sounded, and they needed to get out of here. But it wouldn’t do for Adrien to let them see him hurrying to leave the same way they were or they might find him out, and for now, he still needed to try to keep his identity secret. So he took a few more seconds to study the akuma alert.

There were at least a dozen scarlet supervillains already, and reports indicated additional scarlet akumas in the air. From the photos, Adrien didn’t recognize any of the villains as ones they’d faced before. Had Hawk Moth decided to akumatize a whole new batch of people this time instead of reakumatizing people like he had in the past? It sure looked that way.

“I need to go to the bathroom!” Kim blurted.

“Again?” Miss Bustier asked him.

“Uh . . . I had a lot of coffee this morning?”

Miss Bustier sighed in resignation, which was apparently all the approval Kim thought he needed to dash out of the room.

Adrien hid a smirk by ducking his head toward his phone. Yeah, Kim was definitely King Monkey. Hopefully Nino and Max could give him some tips on making a more discreet exit before anyone else caught on.

“Me, too!” Nino said, already on his feet. “I totally need to pee, too!”

Miss Bustier only had time to give him an incredulous look before he ran out.

Max got up. “I should . . . check on them. There could be a . . . bladder infection . . . going around.” He ran out before Miss Bustier could get past her stunned silence.

Adrien sighed. Well, maybe Luka could give them all some pointers. He, at least, seemed like someone who knew how to be subtle.

Marinette’s pained groan sent a shock of concern through Adrien, perking his ears up to hear her say, “Miss Bustier, I’m feeling lightheaded all of a sudden. Can I go to the nurse’s office to lie down?”

 _Poor thing._ Adrien didn’t really understand what all symptoms pregnancy could cause, but it seemed like it could cause just about anything, and lightheadedness after a nasty surprise must have been one of them. He hoped she was all right.

Miss Bustier frowned with concern. “Okay, Marinette. Do you want—”

A couple seconds after he should have realized it, it occurred to Adrien that Marinette had just given him the perfect excuse to leave the room. He shot to his feet. “Miss Bustier, I’ll take her!”

The teacher’s concerned expression melted into a reassured smile. “Thank you, Adrien.”

But when he turned to Marinette, she didn’t look relieved at all. In fact, she looked a little annoyed.

He didn’t have time to figure that out. Ladybug needed him. He stepped up the aisle and offered Marinette his hand for support. She took it, her face flushing slightly. (If she was lightheaded, didn’t that mean the blood was going _out_ of her head? He didn’t have time to answer that question either, though.) He led her to the door, ready to catch her if she fainted, but she didn’t seem to be leaning on his support at all.

As they left, Adrien told Miss Bustier, “I might stay with her until she feels better,” just before the door closed behind them, not allowing the teacher any time to refuse that suggestion.

Adrien led Marinette toward the nurse’s office, trying to hurry without going too fast for her. He really didn’t want her to faint.

“You don’t need to stay with me,” Marinette assured him. Her tone was strained, but he wasn’t quite sure what it meant. Was she embarrassed?

“Are you sure?” he asked, trying to hide his relief. He really didn’t want to leave her if she did need him, especially after saying he’d stay with her, but he didn’t have a choice.

“I’m sure. I’m feeling a lot better.”

He gave her a worried look. “How much better? Are you . . . going to be able to go back to class right away?” If she did, then she’d ruin his excuse to be gone for any time after that, and a Scarlet Moth attack would probably not get cleaned up quickly.

“No, I—I’ll probably have to lie down for a while. But I don’t need you to sit there and watch me rest.”

He smiled. She _was_ just embarrassed, then. “Okay. As long as you’re sure.”

They reached the nurse’s office. It was empty, so the nurse must still have been at lunch. Adrien walked Marinette over to a bed and waited until she lay down. How long had it been already? Three minutes? He needed to go.

“Thanks,” Marinette said. “You can go now.”

She sure was making this easy for him. “All right. Um, feel better.” He left the room, found a spot to transform, and headed toward the fight.

Cat Noir only got ten blocks away from the school before coming across of a group of arguing superheroes.

“Ladybug’s gonna be so mad at you if you let anyone else find out your identity!” Carapace told King Monkey.

King Monkey appeared totally unconcerned. “I thought it was a fine excuse.”

“Once!” Carapace shot back. “Not twice in the same day!”

“Like you did any better,” Pegasus pointed out.

They hadn’t seen Cat Noir yet, though he wasn’t trying to hide as he walked over the roof toward them.

“And the bathroom is too obvious a place to transform,” Carapace said, crossing his arms.

“Then why did you guys follow me in there?” King Monkey countered.

Carapace and Pegasus looked a bit sheepish and turned to Viperion for help. Viperion just shrugged.

Cat Noir made a mental note to find a better place to transform when he was at school.

King Monkey twirled his staff around like he needed something to do with his hands. “Now that we’ve all seen each other, it doesn’t really matter if we go there or not.”

Pegasus cocked an eyebrow. “You don’t think four guys suddenly rushing to the bathroom together wouldn’t strike people as odd?”

“Girls do it all the time,” King Monkey said.

Pegasus added, “And then not coming out for significantly longer than it takes to pee?”

“Girls—”

“Girls do a lot of things boys don’t,” Viperion said calmly. “They have a point. We need to coordinate better.”

That was so true. But now wasn’t the time to hash all of it out. As Ladybug’s de facto second-in-command, Cat Noir needed to have a quick word with them before they met up with Ladybug.

He strolled up, and they finally spotted him. “Boys, boys, why all the caterwauling? You’re going to draw attention.”

Carapace and Pegasus at least looked a bit humbled, but King Monkey propped his staff up and clung to it like he didn’t know how to stand still. “We weren’t being _that_ loud.”

Cat Noir extended his stick long enough to rest his hands on it and his chin on his hands. “King Monkey, you know part of the reason Ladybug decided to call you back was specifically because no one knew your real identity, right?”

Finally, King Monkey showed some shame. “No, I didn’t. Sorry. Do you think she’ll yell at me?”

“Maybe.”

“Do you . . . think she’ll take my Miraculous?”

“I doubt it.”

Pegasus eyed Cat Noir. “When did you get here? How much did you hear?”

“Enough to find out you all know who each other are.” Cat Noir mentally added Alya to that list. Knowing about Nino and Max as she did, there was no way she wouldn’t figure Kim out after his incredibly unsubtle exit.

“Why aren’t _you_ yelling at us?” Carapace asked.

Yell at them? Cat Noir was having a hard enough time fighting not to grin. “I’ve never been as hard-lined about the secret identity thing as Ladybug. To be honest, I’d love to tell you all who I really am too. Being friends together in our regular lives, knowing each other’s secrets? Sounds like a lot of fun. _Buuut_ , my lady wouldn’t like that, so for now, this cat has to stay in the bag.”

All four heroes visibly relaxed, and Cat Noir suddenly felt like the lenient parent in the family. The one who gave the kids ice cream and let them stay up late, so long as they promised not to let Mommy find out.

An unexpected wave of wistfulness swept over him. Ladybug really would be a mommy soon, and he’d do nearly anything to be the one her kid thought of as the soft parent.

A red blur appeared in the corner of his vision as Ladybug dropped onto the roof right beside him. Her sudden presence made Cat Noir jerk upright, his spine stiffening in surprise.

“Good, everyone’s here,” she said. “Were you waiting for me?”

The other guys darted looks at each other, then at Cat Noir, apparently not sure if they were supposed to fess up or not.

Cat Noir stepped forward and turned to face her with the other guys behind him. “With all the supervillains Scarlet Moth’s controlling, it looks like it’s gonna be a complicated fight, so I thought it was best to wait for our leader instead of rushing in like someone opened all the cages at the zoo.”

Ladybug nodded in approval. “Good thinking. Let’s go.” She threw out her yo-yo and headed off.

Just before they all followed her, Cat Noir patted King Monkey’s shoulder and said, “I’ll break your little snafu to her later, after we defeat these villains.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm working off the assumption that Luka goes to their school and is just in a different grade/class. Since that's normally how it works with siblings and the show hasn't given us any evidence to the contrary.


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, there's not a chapter missing. I just didn't feel like writing a gratuitous fight scene.

_I’ve_ _made a mistake_ _again_ , Gabriel thought dispassionately as he carried Nathalie’s limp form into the library. He laid her down gently on the longest couch and slid a throw pillow under her head. Her breathing was shallow but even. Only a sound sleep, Gabriel suspected.

Hoped.

Whether it had been too soon after the last time she’d used the Peacock Miraculous or whether pregnancy had made her more fragile than she let on (or any number of other factors or combinations of factors), the battle with Ladybug and her obnoxious boy band had sapped all of Nathalie’s strength. It had been wrong of Gabriel to ask for her assistance. Her drive to help him—wherever it came from—was so strong that she would defy his direct orders to do it. Of course he should have known that she’d overestimate her own fortitude if he asked her for help. He resolved that he would not ask again for at least another year, long enough for her to have the baby and fully recover.

It would leave him without assistance in his more clandestine work for longer than he would like, but it couldn’t be helped. He couldn’t allow his unbridled aggravation to once again risk the lives or health of either his most loyal employee or what was likely to be a useful and obedient child, if its mother was anything to go by.

He quietly closed the library doors, leaving Nathalie to rest, and returned to his workstation. Swiping his fingers over the screen, he pulled up the Ladyblog, where a live streaming video dominated the front page. He clicked the image to full-screen.

The image shook as the camera operator—that Alya girl, no doubt—ran toward the group of so-called heroes gathered in a clump in front of the Eiffel Tower. Two of the women Hawk Moth had akumatized were sitting on the ground, still trying to get their wits about them.

“Ladybug, that was amazing!” Alya cried from off-screen. “There were almost two dozen supervillains, and you guys took them all out like they were nothing!”

Gabriel gritted his teeth. He had nearly gotten his hands on a Miraculous at least four times. He’d hardly call that nothing. And that blasted snake boy had jumped in out of nowhere enough times that Gabriel was sure he’d have succeeded many times over if it weren’t for him. It was enough to make him raise getting the Snake Miraculous to his highest priority, unless the Ladybug or Black Cat Miraculouses happened to fall into his lap first. With the power of time on his side, there was no way he would lose. Not when he came so close to winning even when the enemy had that advantage.

Ladybug turned toward the camera, appearing oddly shaken. “It was harder than it looked.”

Good. It seemed he’d impressed himself upon _her_ , at least.

In the background, Cat Noir and Viperion helped the two women off the ground. The camera swooped in toward Carapace, who jumped, his eyes darting from the camera to a spot off-screen that was likely Alya’s face.

“Carapace, I saw how you protected all those people when that building collapsed,” Alya said. “Are you the strongest hero, or just the coolest?” There was a flirtatious lilt to her tone that she’d never used in any interviews before.

Gabriel’s eyes narrowed. The girl had her faults, but she hadn’t struck him as the sort who would flirt with any boy who crossed her path, and he’d never heard her use that tone with Cat Noir, even when Cat Noir flirted first. (Which he did. Frequently. With—as far as Gabriel could tell—every female who crossed his path. Whoever had raised that boy had clearly not taught him much about appropriate social interaction.)

Even stranger was the way Carapace nervously brushed the back of his hood and—if Gabriel wasn’t mistaken—blushed slightly beneath his mask. “Uh, it’s a turtle thing? Shelter is kinda my whole deal.” Then he darted a look off-camera—at Alya—and his gaze warmed.

Gabriel filed that strange little interaction away for further consideration.

The newest member of their group, the wielder of the Monkey Miraculous, pushed Carapace to the side and smiled broadly into camera. “Hey, Alya! I mean, Ladyblogger! Why are you asking this nerd questions? Don’t you want to interview me, King Monkey?”

_First Queen Bee, now King Monkey. What’s next? Princess Pig and Prince Goat?_

“Sure, King Monkey,” Alya replied, her tone playful but no longer flirtatious. “Is this your first day as a superhero?”

“Nah. I helped Ladybug and these guys out once before, so I know what I’m doing.”

Dismissing King Monkey as a fool, Gabriel watched what the others were doing in the background.

Frowning, Pegasus approached Ladybug and told her something the microphone didn’t pick up. From the reaction of Ladybug and the boys standing around her, Gabriel could guess what news the horse boy had discovered.

Ladybug strode toward the camera. As she did so, Alya reframed to center on her and asked, “Ladybug, what can you tell us about today’s attack?”

“I do have something to say, Alya, but it’s not to you or to your viewers.” Ladybug looked square into the camera lens. “What I have to say is for Hawk Moth.”

The corners of Gabriel’s mouth curled into an amused smirk. _By all means, let’s hear it._

“Hawk Moth,” Ladybug told him, her blue eyes shining with anger, “you ought to be ashamed of yourself.”

Gabriel laughed aloud. A child scolding him as if their roles were reversed—it was too much.

He wondered how many details she’d let slip, but it was soon clear that she wanted to keep things under wraps so as not to create a panic. If the general public knew that all of the women he’d akumatized were pregnant—or that most of them had only been in foul moods for reasons that even they knew were irrational—the fear and anger levels in Paris would skyrocket. It would have set the perfect stage for him to try the Scarlet Moth approach again. And again. And again. So, it was disappointing that Ladybug possessed the sense to not release that information, but not too disappointing, since he was unable to make use of Catalyst again anyway.

Ladybug had very little to add to her rebuke, and Alya’s weak attempts to get her to clarify were ignored. But someone else hadn’t yet said his piece.

Cat Noir shouldered past Ladybug and reached past the camera to grab what must have been Alya’s wrist. He pulled it forward until his face took up the entire screen. Such raw, fiery hatred burned in those green cat eyes. “I have a message for you, too, Hawk Moth,” the cat snarled. “What you did today was inhuman and unforgivable. If you ever do it again”—he pulled the camera even closer and his voice dropped to a low growl—“I. Will. Murder. You.”

Ladybug and Alya gasped. Carapace pulled Cat Noir away from Alya, tossed an arm around his shoulders, and guided him away. Alya tried to get more answers out of the remaining heroes, but none of them said anything.

Gabriel didn’t laugh. Oh, he wasn’t frightened by Cat Noir’s threat. He was fully convinced that he could best Cat Noir in a physical fight if it came down to one—not to mention the fact that, angry through he was, the boy would never have the guts to actually kill someone.

But something about the way Cat Noir had looked and sounded reminded Gabriel strongly of the moment when Adrien had come out of his shock and said that Hawk Moth had gone too far. Gabriel _had_ gone too far then. Was it possible he’d done so again?

More importantly, would _Adrien_ think he’d gone too far?

Gabriel was sure that everything he did as Hawk Moth was worth it if he could get Emilie back. Even his softhearted son would forgive him then. There was no lasting harm done by his actions, after all. Except lasting harm—or lasting effects, at least—had been caused by Fairy Grandmother. What else might happen that Gabriel didn’t intend? And how much would Adrien be able to forgive?

Would Gabriel regain his wife only to lose his son? If he went too far too many times, he just might.

Gabriel closed the video window and slouched into the nearest chair. He could _not_ give up on Emilie. But maybe . . . maybe he would need to take more care on how he approached things from now on.

#

Over the next three weeks, Hawk Moth akumatized seventeen people. All of them were men between the ages of fifteen and fifty. The heroes had absolutely no idea what to make of this new trend.

“I guess your threat worked,” Carapace told Cat Noir after the latest battle, as they considered the matter.

“It wasn’t a threat. It was a warning.”

Carapace shrugged. “Whatever, dude. Can’t argue with the results.”

“Ladybug can,” Cat Noir groused. She’d chewed him out good for threatening to murder someone on a live internet stream, even if the ‘someone’ in question was a supervillain. Fortunately, most people had chalked it up to hyperbole, but Cat Noir had meant every word. He wasn’t actually sure he’d be able to follow through on the threat, if it came down to it. It probably depended on which pregnant woman Hawk Moth akumatized, how far along the pregnancy was, and how much danger she was put in during the fight. Maybe he wouldn’t actually commit murder for just anyone, but if Hawk Moth was stupid enough to go after Ladybug or Marinette—or even Alya, Kagami, Chloe, or Alix—Cat Noir would absolutely be out for blood. As he considered it, he mentally extended that list to include Nathalie, Miss Bustier, and Sabine.

Carapace interrupted his thoughts before he could add any more names. “She got over it.”

Cat Noir took the opportunity to put himself in a better mood by teasing his friend. “It’s funny how that Ladyblogger never followed up with more questions about why we were so upset by the Scarlet Moth attack.”

Carapace instantly fell into nervous fidgeting. “Yeah, funny, right?! It’s almost like someone told her. Not me, though. Definitely not me. But if someone did tell her, then it’s smart of her to understand why Ladybug wanted to keep it quiet, right?”

Cat Noir grinned at his discomfort. “Yeah. Maybe Ladybug told her. So she’d stop asking.”

“Right! That’s probably it! But don’t check. Let’s just assume that’s what happened.”

Cat Noir turned away so Carapace wouldn’t see him stifling a giggle.

Viperion strolled over to them, a pensive look on his face. He had slipped away immediately after the fight to feed his kwami. Ladybug had already taken off, followed shortly by King Monkey. Pegasus had been helping the akuma victim get his bearings again. Cat Noir wasn’t sure why Carapace was hanging around but figured the boys had probably decided to stagger their returns to school whenever they could. It was bad enough that they all left more or less at the same time once an akuma alert came out. All coming back at the same time too would be more than a little suspicious. Even as it was, Cat Noir worried that others in their class were beginning to catch on to something strange. The boys had all gotten a little better at coming up with excuses, but no excuse could be good enough to make it seem totally normal.

“Hey, dude!” Carapace called out to Viperion as he approached, clearly desperate for a topic change. “Great interview on the Ladyblog yesterday!” Alya had managed to get one-on-one interviews with all the new heroes now. Ladybug was still the most popular, but each of them were developing their own little groups of fans. The online spats about which of the boys was the best hero were particularly amusing, especially because Cat Noir almost always came out on top.

“Hm? Oh, thanks.” Viperion was clearly preoccupied with something.

“What’s with the sour expression?” Cat Noir asked him. “Suspect something sinister?” (The sibilance-as-pun thing was an experiment, and Cat Noir wasn’t entirely sure how it was going, since Viperion never acted like he picked up on it. But he didn’t respond in any way to normal puns either, so it was basically a wash.)

“I’m not sure,” said Viperion, “but lately I’ve gotten the feeling that Hawk Moth is targeting me specifically.”

“He’s targeting all of us, dude,” said Carapace.

Viperion shook his head like he was trying to jostle his thoughts into the right order. “I had to use Second Chance ten times in this fight.”

_Okay_ , Cat Noir thought, _that’s kind of a lot._ Normally, he didn’t have to use it more than once or twice, and often not at all.

Viperion continued. “The first eight times were because the villain kept coming after me and nearly getting my Miraculous. I had to keep acting sooner and sooner, but each time he still came straight for me. I was nearly backed up against my starting point by the time I was able to get away early enough.”

“So that’s why you disappeared on us for most of the fight,” Cat Noir observed.

Viperion nodded. “I was watching from a distance. I think I was able to get away before the villain spotted me, but I still ended up having to use Second Chance two more times—first after he paralyzed Ladybug, and then after he got King Monkey’s and Carapace’s Miraculouses.”

Carapace jerked. “He took my Miraculous?”

“Yeah.” Viperion put a reassuring hand on Carapace’s shoulder. “But this is what I’m here for, right?”

An uncomfortable, cold feeling was creeping up Cat Noir’s spine. “Hey, Viperion, you haven’t ever seen me lose my Miraculous, have you?”

He shook his head. “This is the first time anyone actually has, and I already knew who they were.”

True, it wasn’t really an issue for most of them to lose a Miraculous if Second Chance was able to fix it, since Viperion knew who everyone but Ladybug and Cat Noir were already. “But if you did . . .”

“My lips are sealed, Cat Noir. You can trust me.” The calm, reassuring tone of his voice soothed Cat Noir like a gentle stroke down his back. If Cat Noir didn’t know who was under the mask, it might be hard to trust him with something as big as that, but he knew that Luka was an honest, honorable person.

“I do, Viperion,” Cat Noir said. “But you’d tell me if it happened, right?”

“Sure,” Viperion said. “If that’s what you want.”

“And Ladybug . . . ”

“I haven’t seen her either. And if I did, I’d let her know right away.”

Even if it was Luka, it was disconcerting to think that someone might find out Cat Noir’s real identity without him even knowing it had happened, much less being able to do anything to stop it. He let out a puff of air. “Now I see why the holders of the time-travel Miraculouses have to be especially trustworthy.” It put Ladybug’s initial choice of Adrien for the Snake Miraculous into a flattering new light.

Carapace held up a hand. “Wait a minute. Time-travel Miraculouses? As in more than one?”

Should he not have said that? Oh, well. Too late now. “There’s the Snake Miraculous, and we all know what it does. But there’s also the Rabbit Miraculous, which lets people travel to whatever time they want.”

Viperion studied him. “So, when you say ‘holders of the time-travel Miraculouses’, you mean you’ve met a Rabbit Miraculous holder?”

Cat Noir was really not sure how much of this he should be talking about, so he tried to keep it minimal. “Yeah. One from the future followed a villain from the future here once. She knew who Ladybug and I really are. It was a little weird. But, uh, maybe don’t talk about it to anyone else. I’m not sure it’s okay for me to tell you that.”

“No problem, cat bro,” Carapace assured him. “And don’t worry, snake bro. I’ve got your back. It would be bad if Hawk Moth got any of our Miraculouses, but I think we’d be in extra special trouble if he got yours.”

“Do you think I should tell Ladybug?” Viperion asked.

Cat Noir pointed to Viperion’s lyre. “Yeah, and you should text her a message about it so she’ll see it as soon as she transforms next. She’ll probably want that info to help plan our battle tactics.”

While Viperion did that, Carapace waved goodbye. “It’s been real, dudes, but I gotta split.”

Cat Noir watched his friend leave with a resigned sigh. _I’m gonna be so late to class._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may take another break from the internet this weekend, so the next chapter will probably be either Sunday or Monday.


	29. Chapter 29

Unsurprisingly, Alix was the first of the girls to start showing.

On a Monday morning twelve weeks into the Fairy Grandmother pregnancies, Alix stormed into the classroom and up the aisle, thrust a finger into Nathaniel’s face, and declared, “You owe me new pants.”

Poor Nathaniel had actually flinched away from her finger, probably expecting another punch, and now sat leaning away from Alix, his wide eyes darting between her face and her pants in an obvious attempt to comprehend what she meant.

She had everyone’s attention now, so they all saw what she meant when she pulled her shirt up to her waist to display a bulge large enough to have prevented her from zipping the fly of her jeans more than half-way up.

Nathaniel’s eyes grew even wider. He gaped at her belly, then visibly swallowed.

“Well?” Alix demanded impatiently.

His gaze returned to her face. “I’m s-sorry?”

Adrien wondered how many times he’d said that since their initial blow-up all those weeks ago.

Alix dropped her shirt and held out her hand. “So, are you gonna buy me new pants or what?”

Nathaniel actually started reaching into his pocket.

Adrien stood. “Alix, don’t you think you’re being a little unreasonable?”

She shot him a glare that could melt stone.

Adrien held up his hands. “I’m not saying you don’t have a right to be angry, but you shouldn’t take it out on Nathaniel.”

Slowly, the anger bled out of Alix’s expression, and the stiffness in her body relaxed. “Yeah, you’re right. Sorry, Nath.”

“I have a good idea,” Adrien offered, looking around to include the rest of the class. “My father’s opening a new store this week to sell the line of maternity clothes he’s been developing. Maybe we could all take a trip there after school.”

That idea was met with cheers, so Adrien texted Nathalie about it and asked if his bodyguard could bring one of the stretch limos to pick them all up and take them after school.

At the end of the day, when the last bell rang, most of the class filed out, already talking about shopping. Ivan and Max had already declined the shopping offer, but all the girls were up for it.

Well, most of the girls.

When the room was mostly empty, Adrien went over to Chloe’s desk, where she and Sabrina were just getting up. “You coming, Chloe?”

Chloe flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Why would I? _I_ don’t need maternity clothes.”

Which made Adrien glance around. The three of them were alone—except for Nathaniel still making his way down the aisle near the inside wall. Internally, Adrien sighed. In a quieter voice, he asked, “You want me to get you anything?”

“No.” She strode past him, proud as ever.

Before she got far, he said, “That’s a nice sweater, by the way.”

Chloe turned back and said, “Loose sweaters are very in right now.”

“I bet they are.” _But they won’t hide you forever._

Adrien ended up walking next to Nathaniel as they left the classroom and headed down the stairs. “Nathaniel,” he said, walking closer, “you know Alix shouldn’t be treating you like she did this morning, right?”

Nathaniel peeked at Adrien from under his curtain of bangs, then darted a glance around to make sure no one else was close enough to hear. “It’s okay, Adrien. She’s not normally like that.”

“Still . . .”

“I think it’s her way of sharing the pain. She complained about being sore for a week after . . .” Nathaniel couldn’t manage to finish the sentence, but his reddening face spoke for itself. “And I looked up some stuff about childbirth. I even saw some videos.” He cringed in mixed disgust and horror at the memory. “You know some women actually tear really badly down there during the birth? Even minor tears are really common.”

Adrien’s jaw dropped. “They _tear_?” That did sound horrifying.

“And that’s only one thing. I don’t know why more women don’t complain about what they have to go through. It sounds awful. And now Alix is going to have to go through it—probably worse than normal, since it’s twins—and it’s partly because of me. So if she wants to punch me or yell at me or whatever because she’s freaked out and scared and angry, I can take it. It’s nothing to what she’s gonna have to go through.”

They’d reached the courtyard, and Adrien’s eyes naturally drifted to Marinette, where she was walking out of the locker room with Alya. Adrien had never really thought about the actual process of childbirth. He’d heard vague accounts of it being really painful, but no details. _How bad is this gonna be?_

She glanced back at him, their eyes meeting. He waved but couldn’t manage to smile, still hung up on the concept of _tearing_.

When they all got out to the street, they found one of Gabriel’s limos waiting for them. A large van would have worked just as well and been less ostentatious, but Gabriel didn’t own any large passenger vans. “This is us, guys,” Adrien told them.

Kim hooted and dove into the limo. The girls piled in next, chattering happily. Just as Adrien was about to follow Nathaniel in, he heard footsteps running up beside him and turned to see Sabrina.

“I told Chloe I had something to do so she’d leave without me,” Sabrina said.

Adrien smiled in understanding and stood back to let Sabrina climb into the limo.

#

Even though the idea of needing to wear maternity clothes made Marinette freak out inside, the designer in her was eager to see what sorts of designs Gabriel Agreste had come up with. He’d never designed for the maternity market before, but surely he’d still manage to bring the same brilliance to it as he did to high fashion.

The boutique wasn’t located in the most fashionable district but rather in one with cafés, pastry shops, hairdressers, and relatively few shops selling non-consumable products. The doors on either side of the one labeled _Gabriel Maternity Boutique_ displayed signs for a bookstore and a day spa. It was exactly the kind of shopping district that a woman needing an indulgent, relaxing time with friends might be drawn to.

The limo pulled up to the curb, and they all piled out. Alya tried to open the boutique’s front door. “It’s locked.”

Adrien hurried over. “I know.” He knocked on the glass door, waving to someone inside.

A young woman appeared and hurried to unlock the door. “Adrien, hello!”

“Hi”—he checked her name tag—“Sonya. Did someone tell you my friends and I were coming?”

“Of course. Come on in. Everything is ready.” She held the door open and stood aside so they could all file in. “Do let me know if you’d like any refreshments.”

“The shop doesn’t open for another couple days,” Adrien told them as they entered.

“A sneak preview!” Marinette squealed.

“Pre-opening exclusive,” Alya echoed, pulling out her phone. “Is it okay if I do a report on this?” she asked Adrien.

“I’m sure Father would be very pleased if you did,” Adrien answered.

The shop was only about sixteen feet wide, but it stretched out much deeper than that. Most of the shop was filled with racks and display tables full of clothing and accessories. A small cash register counter was in the middle of the shop. In the back were a few individual dressing rooms and several armchairs. The walls were high and painted white with the Gabriel butterfly logo repeated in light grey. Warm light suffused the shop, making the place feel light and sunny.

As their friends spread out to peruse the racks, Marinette asked Adrien, “This is your father’s first retail location, isn’t it?”

Adrien nodded. “He’s planning on it being temporary. With the current surge of demand, he saw an opportunity to make more money by selling direct to consumer.” The tone of Adrien’s voice made it sound like he thought the idea was vaguely distasteful.

“That makes sense,” Marinette said. “Cutting out the middleman probably helps him keep the prices lower. You said that was part of the purpose for this line, right?”

Marinette’s easy acceptance of Gabriel’s plan had put a slightly confused expression on Adrien’s face. “Yeah.”

Reaching to the nearest rack, Marinette checked the tag on one of the shirts. “Wow, these prices really are reasonable. I can actually buy a couple things here.”

“Oh, don’t worry about the prices.” Adrien raised his voice enough that everyone else could hear, too. “Hey, guys, pick out whatever you want. It’s on the house.”

Marinette joined the other girls in goggling at him. Kim cheered and started looking through the racks. The other boys just looked confused.

“What do you mean ‘on the house’?” asked Alya.

“I mean . . . it’s free?” Adrien answered. “I talked to Father about it, and he said you could have whatever you wanted. He just wanted you to wear it and let people know where you got it if they ask.”

“Ahh,” Alya said, grinning. “Guerrilla marketing. Word of mouth. I get it. And maybe he was _hoping_ I’d do a post about it on my blog.”

“It’s entirely possible,” Adrien agreed.

She waggled a finger at him. “I’m not letting the fact that I’m getting stuff for free affect what I say, though. I don’t do sponsors.”

“He didn’t say anything about that,” Adrien said.

“Good.” Alya and the others went back to browsing with new excitement.

Marinette stood by the first row of racks, thinking about Gabriel’s generous offer.

“You okay, Marinette?” Adrien asked, coming close enough to her that she jumped a little.

“Yeah! Fine! I . . . guess this is all right. If he’s using it as advertising.”

Adrien leaned in close, and Marinette’s heart jumped into double-time. “He’s doing this because I asked him. I want to help all my friends, but especially you. Please, pick out as much as you want.”

Between his earnest words and his warm breath on her neck, Marinette felt like she might pass out from lightheadedness. She nodded and squeaked, “Okay,” before moving away from him for her own safety.

On her own, she browsed the store. At first, she just soaked it in. The colors and textures. The angles of cuts and layers of fabric. The way the clothing flowed and stretched while still retaining its style. Most of the styles were variations on things Marinette had seen in Gabriel’s designs before, but that was fine. She couldn’t expect him to do everything totally from scratch given the time frame and target price range he had to work with.

She heard pleasant, quiet chatter from all around her as her friends shopped. Shopping with such a big group of her friends was an unusual experience, and she was a little sad that she probably wouldn’t have a reason to do it again. She looked around at them, taking a moment to soak it in.

Alya had put her phone down and was picking out clothes to try on while joking with Nino, who already had an armful of clothes, evidently having figured out that a boyfriend’s role in shopping was to be a mobile coat rack.

Alix and Nathaniel were basically doing the same thing, but without as much joking and chatting. Alix had a determined look on her face as she hunted through the racks, and Nathaniel seemed to be at least fifty percent in his own head as he trailed her.

To Marinette’s surprise, Sabrina was walking with Adrien, conferring with him in voices Marinette couldn’t hear. At least Adrien wasn’t holding clothes for her. Sabrina had several things slung over one arm. After watching them go from rack to rack, Marinette finally put it together. Since Chloe had refused to come (still being in total denial about her pregnancy), Sabrina had come on her behalf, and since Adrien was Chloe’s old friend, she was getting his opinion on what she might like. Marinette smiled. Sabrina and Chloe didn’t exactly have the most healthy friendship, and Marinette would never understand why Sabrina put up with Chloe’s treatment of her, but the friendship did seem to be genuine, at least.

Marinette realized she’d been staring at those two for way too long and went over to where Rose, Juleka, and Mylène were discussing dress options with Kim. After listening to them debate the pros and cons of floral patterns vs. solids for thirty seconds, Marinette realized that Kim was the one being helped.

“What do you think, Marinette?” Rose asked.

“I’m still not sure what we’re talking about,” Marinette confessed.

“For Ondine!” Kim clarified. “She texted me her sizes, but she didn’t say anything about what kinds of clothes she actually wants.”

“Oh! Right. That makes sense.” Pointing to one of the dresses, Marinette offered, “I think that water lily pattern would look really nice on her.”

Kim brightened. “Great! I’ll take it!”

Deciding Kim had plenty of help for his search, Marinette went off to find things she wanted for herself. She’d hardly been browsing in earnest for thirty seconds before Adrien’s voice startled her.

“Can I help?”

Marinette jumped and spun to find him standing behind her. “Help? Help how?”

Adrien shrugged. “You haven’t picked anything out yet. I was wondering if you might need help.”

She ducked her head. “Oh. Okay. I guess you could maybe . . . hold stuff for me?” Like a boyfriend might?

“Sure!” He held out an arm. “At your service, mademoiselle.”

Going back to her browsing, Marinette sternly told herself to stop grinning. This didn’t mean anything. Adrien wasn’t acting like a boyfriend just because he was following behind her and helping her carry stuff. Nathaniel was doing the same thing for Alix, after all, and they weren’t a couple. That was just what boys did. She guessed. She didn’t have a brother or anything, so she’d never actually had a guy with her when she was shopping for herself before—except her dad, and dads don’t count.

The silence between them was awkward at first but grew gradually comfortable. Adrien’s presence still made her fluttery, but it was a pleasant kind of fluttery. Using Adrien as her cart, Marinette picked out a dozen or more shirts, pants, and dresses for all future stages of her pregnancy. She’d never bought so many stretchy and loose clothes in her life. As she stood at a table stacked with pajamas, examining the waistbands, Adrien finally broke the silence.

“Marinette, are you . . . mad at me at all?”

“What? Why would you ask that?” Had she misread the silence as comfortable when he’d been thinking it was tense?

“It’s just, before, when you said you didn’t hate me, that was before all of this . . .”—he waved his free hand in the direction of her belly—“happened. And you’re gonna have to go through a lot of pain because of it, and you’re probably already going through a lot of discomfort.” That was true. The morning sickness had been really unpleasant, but at least it had passed, though she frequently got sore, and that was only getting worse as time went on. “And Alix is furious and keeps making sure Nathaniel knows about it. And Chloe refuses to even talk to Pierre. And—”

“Adrien.” Marinette stopped him, grabbing his upper arm. “I do feel bad a lot of the time, and I know there’s gonna be pain, but I also know that none of it’s your fault. So—so don’t ever think that I’m mad at you about this, okay?”

Adrien still looked a bit dubious. “Has your mom talked about what it’s like to actually give birth?”

“Some. She said it was the worst pain she’d been through in her life but that it was all worth it.”

Adrien smiled sadly. “I hope you do think that once this is all over.”

#

Once the shopping trip was over and Adrien was back home, he went to his computer and started doing some research. He’d been to one other gynecologist appointment with Marinette since the first one, and the doctor hadn’t said anything about what complications could happen or what she could expect with the birth even in a best case scenario. Maybe they didn’t want to talk about it while he was in the room, but he worried that maybe no one was going to talk about it even to Marinette until it was nearly time. If it was a matter of not wanting to worry and stress her unnecessarily, he could understand that. But if that was the case, it was all the more reason for him to be informed, so he could be the best partner to her that he could. If something really bad happened during the birth, he should be supporting her through it, not dealing with his own surprise and panic.

He started by going to YouTube and typing ‘pregnancy what they don’t tell you’ into the search bar. And got sucked down the rabbit hole.


	30. Chapter 30

After a few hours, Adrien closed his browser window, sat back, and stared blankly at his monitor for a solid five minutes.

_Why on earth do women ever want to have anything to do with us, if that’s the kind of thing they have to go through as a result?_ he wondered. He had already known women could be tough. Ladybug was a prime example of how amazing and strong girls could be. But for all women as a whole to take the horror show that was pregnancy and childbirth as just a natural thing to deal with when a lot of guys act like a kick to the crotch (something that Adrien was thankful to have never experienced) is the worst pain a human could experience . . . Well, the term ‘paradigm shift’ came to mind, and it took him a while to wrap his brain around his new reality. Women were tough not _despite_ being women but _because_ they were women.

Honestly, it made him love Ladybug even more. But it also gave him more respect for Marinette and Alya and all his other female friends. And more determination to help them with this burden in any way he could. He’d been doing everything he could think of. He’d started going with Marinette to her appointments, he’d arranged for the shopping trip today, and he’d been verbally and emotionally supportive whenever the chance arose. But it still didn’t feel like enough. He still felt like there were opportunities he was missing.

He picked up his phone and made a video call to Nino.

Nino answered right away. “Hey, bro, what’s up?”

“Are you alone?” Adrien asked.

“Yep. Just hanging out in my room.”

“Good. I wanted to brainstorm. I’ve been doing everything I can think of for Marinette and the others, but—”

Nino raised a hand. “Hold up. Does this have to do with Operation Support-the-Ladies?”

“Yes? Did we make it an operation?”

“In that case, let’s get the other guys in on this. You’re in your room, right?”

Adrien nodded.

“I’ll start up a video chat so we can all get on.” Nino hung up.

A few seconds later, an invitation to a video call notification popped up on his computer. He clicked it, and a window showing Nino’s face opened.

“Just a sec,” Nino said. “I’m inviting everyone else.”

One by one, more windows appeared until all the guys in their class were looking out of individual windows, mostly covering Adrien’s monitor. Most of them were looking expectantly slightly off-camera (presumably at the place in their monitor where Nino’s image was), but Max was focused intently on his monitor while typing constantly. Nathaniel was similarly focused on some part of his screen, his hands busy with a tablet and stylus of the kind used for digital drawing.

“Good, everyone’s here,” Nino announced. “Let this meeting of Operation Support-the-Ladies commence.”

That got a few raised eyebrows.

“That’s what this is about?” asked Ivan.

“If we’re gonna name this thing, can’t we think of a cooler one?” asked Kim.

“Seconded,” said Max.

Adrien began to doubt this conversation would be very productive.

“Um, okay,” said Nino. “Operation Seahorse?”

Adrien winced. “I don’t think our options for helping them will extend to actually giving birth for them.” He wondered if somewhere out there was a Seahorse Miraculous, and if its powers included male pregnancy. He kind of hoped not.

“Operation Penguin?” Nino suggested.

That got a few notes of approval.

“Penguins are awesome!” Kim agreed, but probably for a different reason than the rest of them.

Ivan made a suggestion. “We could call it Operation Bra. ’Cause they, ya know . . . support the ladies.”

They all had a good snicker over that.

“Speaking of which,” said Kim, “has anyone else noticed some growth in that area?” He held his hands up like he was holding two imaginary grapefruits in front of him—as if that question needed a visual aid. “Because I could swear Alix’s are getting bigger.”

A distracted voice responded, “Definitely.”

Everyone’s attention shifted to Nathaniel, who suddenly dropped his tablet and stylus.

Kim leaned closer to the camera and grinned. “Does little Nathy have a crush on his baby mama?”

“It’s not l-like that!” Nathaniel sputtered. “I’m an artist! It’s normal for me to observe the . . . human . . . figure.” He trailed off as if realizing as he said it how lame it sounded. “Fine. Maybe I am paying more attention to her . . . her boobs than I normally do. Ever since I . . . saw them . . . I can’t help it.” Nathaniel sounded miserable.

It occurred to Adrien that he might be the only one of them who could understand what Nathaniel was feeling. Max and Ivan hadn’t experienced the same thing at all, and Nino and Kim had at least been with their girlfriends. Adrien was the only other guy who’d done all that with a girl who was only a friend. So, before Kim could continue the teasing, Adrien cut in. “Guys, don’t pester him about it. What he does or doesn’t feel for Alix is his own business. In fact, can we move on from this entirely? I didn’t start this discussion in order to talk about our friends’ breasts.”

Unfortunately, Kim didn’t drop it. He only changed targets. “Don’t tell me you still haven’t noticed Marinette—” Whatever he was saying got cut off as Kim’s window disappeared.

“I’m with Adrien on this,” Nino said. “I mean, it’s not like I haven’t noticed Alya getting a little more padding up top, but I don’t really want any of _you guys_ to notice, if you get me.”

“Nino,” said Max, “it looks like Kim got kicked out of the chat.”

“Oh, no,” Nino said without inflection. “However did that happen? Let me invite him back.”

In a few seconds, Kim’s window was back. “What was that for? I was just asking Adrien why—” Kim’s window disappeared again.

“Weird,” Nino said. “He must have a bad connection. Give me a second.” Even though his hands stayed off-screen, it sure looked like he was texting someone.

Adrien didn’t know what was going on, but he had more important things to worry about. “Can we get back to what I was asking about, Nino?”

“Sure thing, bud. Operation Penguin is a go. You have the floor.”

Kim’s window reappeared, but he finally dropped whatever he’d been trying to tease Adrien about before.

“Okay,” said Adrien. “I was just wondering if anyone else has come up with some ideas of how we can help the girls, because I feel like I’m not doing enough.”

“Bro, you just bought the girls a ton of clothes,” Nino pointed out.

Adrien waved dismissively. “Forget about that. I need to know if there’s anything I—anything _we_ —can do to make it _physically_ easier on them. This is already uncomfortable for them, and it’s even going to get more uncomfortable and even painful.” He briefly explained some of what he’d learned from the internet. Nathaniel was apparently the only other guy who’d done his own research, as he was the only one that didn’t look surprised by any of what Adrien said. But they all appeared as disturbed, disgusted, and horrified by the news as Adrien had been. Having gotten enough of the point across, Adrien concluded, “When one of my best friends is in pain because of something _I_ did to her, I want to be able to do more than hand her a pair of comfy sweatpants!”

The other guys all stared out from his monitor with sober faces.

Ivan asked, “Like what?”

Adrien slouched in his chair. “I don’t know. That’s why I wanted to brainstorm.”

He heard tapping and noticed that Max was intent on his screen again. They waited for him to come up with some answers for them. After a minute or two, Max said, “I’ve found various suggestions on a number of websites for how a pregnant woman’s partner can help her have a more comfortable pregnancy and delivery.”

Adrien should have known he could count on Max to track down the information he needed.

“What have you got?” Nino prompted.

“Speaking to the concern of vaginal tearing during delivery,” Max started, and Adrien cringed a little. He hadn’t used the word ‘vaginal’ when he’d described it, but somehow adding that made the whole thing seem even worse.

He shifted uncomfortably. Hearing ‘vaginal’ had made him think of ‘vagina’, which instantly made him think of _Marinette’s_ vagina and what it had felt like and—

_No! Stop! Focus focus focus!_

No one noticed Adrien’s discomfort, and Max continued. “It says on this site that her partner can help to reduce the risk of tearing by regularly massaging her perineum.”

Silence.

Adrien looked at the other boys in their windows. No one seemed to know what Max had meant. But no one else was asking, so Adrien ventured, “What’s a perineum?”

Max answered, “It’s the spot between the vaginal opening and the anus.”

Nino made a loud, uncomfortable noise, and Nathaniel fell backward out of his chair. Kim did both. Adrien stared wide-eyed at Max and said, “I . . . don’t think I can do that.”

“Yeah, uh, we’re not really at that stage,” Nino said, his face red.

Kim laughed uncomfortably. “If Ondine wants her peri-whatsit massaged, she can do it herself.”

Nino wasn’t the only one blushing at the idea. Adrien’s own face felt too hot, and all the other guys were blushing, too. Even Ivan, a little bit. Max was the only one taking taking such an objective view of the whole thing. _Lucky jerk._

Max shrugged. “Okay, well . . . it also says that stretch marks and dry skin are a problem and that certain types of moisturizers can help with it.”

“Good!” Adrien said. “I can do that! I’ll find the best moisturizer there is and get it for her! Nathalie probably already knows what it is.”

The other guys relaxed, too. “Once you find out, maybe text the info to the rest of us?” Nino asked.

Adrien nodded. “Sure. What else, Max?”

“Back rubs and foot massages seem to be appreciated, if that’s not too _intimate_ for you.” Max smirked. Was he actually teasing them about this? Even though that was annoying, Adrien couldn’t quite make himself wish that Max were in the same predicament as the rest of them. He couldn’t begrudge anyone escaping this mess.

Nino grinned in excitement. “ _That_ I can do.”

“And as they get bigger, walking gets more uncomfortable,” Max said. “So offering to carry things for them or help them get around might be a good idea. That’s something even Ivan and I could help with.”

“Yeah,” Ivan grunted happily. “There are a lot of stairs at school. I could carry them up and down if they need it.”

Adrien glanced at the clock in the corner of his monitor. It was getting late, and this conversation was a lot more stressful than he’d planned on it being. “I think I need to go to bed. Thanks for the chat, guys. I think we came up with a few good ideas that we can work with. I’ll look into that moisturizer thing first thing tomorrow.”

Everyone said goodbye and logged off. Adrien changed into his pajamas and got ready for bed. Plagg was already asleep, so he didn’t have any commentary to share about the conversation, sparing Adrien from any more teasing.

Except as he lay in bed, trying to get to sleep, Adrien’s own mind was tormenting him enough without any outside help. He was able to keep from thinking the V-word again, which helped keep his mind off of that part of things, but he couldn’t get the earlier topic all the way out of his head. Adrien really hadn’t noticed any of the girls’ chests getting bigger, but he really made a habit of not looking too closely.

Adrien stared up at his ceiling in the darkness, willing his curiosity to go away—unsuccessfully. From the Cattiest part of his brain, a notion escaped for such a fleeting instant that it was more an idea for a thought than an actual thought. _Did putting a bun in the baker girl’s oven make anything else rise?_

He smacked both hands over his face, mentally flogging himself and trying extremely hard not to workshop the pun a bit to find the best phrasing. Then he stopped fighting it when he realized that at least working on his wordplay got his mind off the other things. By the time he finally drifted to sleep, he’d worked out the perfect wording for a joke which he would never allow to pass his lips.


	31. Chapter 31

Normally, Marinette had such a hard time waking up that she had to scramble to dress and get to school. It didn’t give her much time for analyzing or considering what she would wear. Consequently, she didn’t spend much time observing herself in the mirror—at least not from the neck down. But this morning, she happened to wake up early (thanks to some back cramping), so she took her time getting dressed. She had, off and on, noticed some differences in the way her body felt, and after the shopping yesterday, she was curious. So once she’d removed her pajamas, she took a minute to examine herself in the mirror.

There was a noticeable swell in her lower abdomen. It wasn’t a bump, exactly. It looked like the sort of thing that could have easily come from having too big a meal, and it wasn’t terribly obvious even then. But it was a good thing she’d already brought home those maternity clothes. She suspected she’d need them soon. Her gaze moved higher, and she frowned, angling her body this way and that.

“Tikki?” she asked. “Are my boobs getting bigger?”

Her kwami floated over to look in the mirror with her. “Probably. But that’s a normal part of pregnancy. And of adolescence.”

“So this may or may not be permanent?”

Tikki shrugged.

Marinette wasn’t sure how she felt about all this. Normally, some growth in that area at her age would be appreciated. But if it was only happening because of her pregnancy, that made her feelings all jumbled. At the very least, it meant she’d have to update her measurements if she wanted to create any new outfits for herself—though she normally updated her measurements every few months anyway, just to be safe.

But it was so strange to think of _why_ they were getting bigger. It wasn’t just because she was maturing. It was because her body was getting ready to feed a baby with them. And that was . . . extremely weird. Most women who had babies were probably a little more used to people other than themselves touching their breasts. The idea of another person—even a tiny person, even her _own_ tiny person—latching onto her like that made her feel . . . She didn’t even know how she felt. Other than _weird_.

Maybe it would feel natural when the time came. She hoped so.

She put on her bralette, grateful for the more comfortable, forgiving style rather than a normal bra that had to be replaced if you gained an inch or two in the band or bust. If she was lucky, she wouldn’t need to buy any more of these during her pregnancy. It had been lucky she hadn’t had to stop in the lingerie section of the store while Adrien was following her around, anyway. She didn’t think she’d have been able to do it even if she had needed to.

The day went pretty normally. During study hall in the library, Marinette finished her work in time to do some sketching. She was so intent on the design she was drawing that she jumped in surprise when Adrien appeared at her right, plopping his hands down on the desk and leaning over to see her sketchpad.

“Hi, Marinette. What are you working on?”

She tried to compose herself as best she could, despite the way he was leaning over, his left arm nearly touching her right shoulder. “J-just some designs. I got inspired by going to your dad’s store yesterday and thought I’d see if I could come up with any good maternity styles.” She turned and raised her head toward him just enough to peek up at his face.

Adrien was smiling and scanning her designs. “They look great. I hope you make them when you’re done.”

She looked at the pencil in her hand and fiddled with it. “Thanks. I—I think I will.”

He didn’t respond right away, so she peeked up at him again, only to find that his gaze and expression had shifted. The smile was gone, and his eyes were narrowed slightly and aimed in the direction of . . .

No, that couldn’t be right.

Was Adrien . . . staring at her _chest_?

Heat poured into her face and down her neck. “A-Adrien?” she chirped.

His face snapped to hers, his eyes wide, and he blushed as he stood straight to put some distance between them. “Yeah, good—good styles! Anyway, I need to go, uh, talk to Nino about something. Later!” He took off before she could reply.

When they got back to the classroom, Adrien acted totally normal, except his cheeks did look a little pinker than usual. She didn’t catch him coming even close to looking at her chest again.

But he _had_ been looking at her chest in the library. She was sure she hadn’t imagined it. Why else would he have acted embarrassed? But it didn’t mean anything. He’d already admitted to having things about her stuck in his head. It didn’t mean his feelings were changing.

If only all it took to win his love was flashing a little cleavage. Then again, if he were the kind of guy that worked on, he wouldn’t be someone she was in love with.

#

After the day Adrien had been having, the supervillain attack in the late afternoon was almost a relief.

First it had been Alya, when she’d leaned her elbows on the desk he shared with Nino to talk to her boyfriend, all cozy and sweet, their noses nearly touching. And Adrien hadn’t been able to help but notice the ‘extra padding’ Nino had mentioned. Nino must have seen him looking from the corner of his eye, because he’d stomped on Adrien’s foot under the desk and then given him a warning look after Alya had left. Adrien had apologized under his breath, and he knew Nino understood. But a guy had to do what a guy had to do, even between bros.

Then Adrien had gotten paired with Alix for a project, and he’d politely asked how the new pants were working out for her, and she’d said that they were comfortable before bluntly adding that her boobs were totally sore but the new bra helped. She’d looked down at them herself as if offended by them, and how could he have _not_ looked when _she’d_ made them the center of the conversation? (Kim and Nathaniel had been very much correct.)

And then there was Marinette in study hall. He hadn’t meant to look, but then they were right there. He hadn’t just glanced—he’d stared. It had been an accident. By the time he realized he was looking, his brain had convinced him he was only trying to satisfy his curiosity about whether they’d gotten bigger. It was still kinda hard to tell, but when his brain not-so-helpfully reminded him what they had looked like naked, he’d just about determined that they _had_ grown a bit when Marinette caught him staring. Which was humiliating. He wanted to apologize, but that would be an admission of guilt, and on the off chance she _hadn’t_ realized exactly where he’d been looking, he didn’t want to risk bringing attention to it.

Then in a break between classes, Chloe had gotten excited about something and thrown herself on him, and despite pushing her away as quickly as he could, he hadn’t been able to help but notice that she’d felt softer against him than she usually did.

And then there was fencing. Thank God for the thick and flattening protective material of their fencing gear, but even though Adrien couldn’t see anything different when he looked at Kagami, his brain was so worked up about boobs that he couldn’t help _wondering_ about hers anyway. She even rebuked him for being distracted twice, but at least she hadn’t indicated any idea that she’d known where his mind was.

So when the supervillain had appeared half-way through fencing practice, Adrien ran for the locker room in eager relief.

That relief only lasted until the battle was over.

The villain wasn’t especially tough, and the fight was even easier with six of them. Either Hawk Moth was taking a break from going after Viperion or this villain was laser-focused on his goal, but it didn’t seem like Viperion was having to stay back especially much.

It turned out to be another case of someone feeling like he’d been unjustly fired from his job. (There’d been a few of those.) So the villain was intent on going after his former boss and fought the heroes only because they were getting in his way. Between Ladybug’s coordination of the team and the natural athleticism that their suits gave them, the fight felt more like a dance or an acrobatics show than an actual fight. It was even more fun and exhilarating than fencing, and Cat Noir’s puns and quips came fast and hot. After feeling so awkward and embarrassed and ashamed of himself all day, it was nice to let loose a little.

And then they won, and they fist-bumped, and Ladybug smiled at him.

Cat Noir smiled back . . . and his gaze drifted south.

_Why?! Why, eyes? No!_ But his eyes would not obey him.

This curiosity of his was absolutely going to get him in trouble. But when had that ever stopped a cat?

The pattern of her costume disguised things a little, but when it came down to it, she was wearing a skin-tight, full-body suit with nothing to break up the smooth lines of her contours.

Her boobs were definitely bigger. Not by much, but . . .

“Um, Cat Noir,” she said, “you’re making me uncomfortable.”

His face flushed with shame as his eyes snapped to hers. “Ladybug! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to!” And he’d been doing this _all day_. Had he made his other friends uncomfortable, too?

She considered him for a moment, then smiled and ruffled his hair. “All right, Kitty. I forgive you. But try not to do it again, all right?”

“I will. I mean, I won’t. I mean—I’m so sorry. Thank you, Milady.”

In his peripheral vision, he saw her hand go to her belly again, and his eyes twitched toward the motion, but he fought to keep them on her face.

She gave him another soft smile. “It’s all right for you to look at my _stomach_ ,” she said pointedly.

Letting out a breath of gratitude, he stopped fighting it and followed the motion of her hand. It was still hard to tell with the spots, but he could almost see . . . “You’re starting to show, aren’t you?”

“Just barely,” she murmured.

The other heroes had already left, and even though they were standing in a park, Cat Noir had thought they were relatively alone. Until Alya ran up, yelling, “Ladybug! Hold on!”

Ladybug jerked in surprise, but she didn’t run away. “Uh, hi, Alya,” she said, turning toward the other girl.

Alya stopped a few paces away from them and opened her mouth to ask something, then she noticed Ladybug’s hand on her belly, and her eyes went wide. “Ladybug,” Alya breathed, “are you pregnant?”

Cat Noir could see the panic in his partner’s face. He wanted to hug her or hold her hand. But he didn’t reach out to her, lest either Alya or her viewers misconstrue something.

“Um, well . . . yeah,” Ladybug admitted.

“Were you—” Alya started, but Ladybug cut her off.

“I-I have to go!” She threw out her yo-yo and disappeared.

“Sorry, Alya,” Cat Noir said with a shrug before running away. He wanted to reassure Ladybug, but she’d disappeared entirely and didn’t show up on the locator in his stick. She must have de-transformed already.

He headed back to the school, wondering if he should have done something differently. Since her news was so much bigger (as far as it concerned Paris), he had let Ladybug decide when to announce that they’d been affected by Fairy Grandmother’s gas. But she never _had_ announced it, and now the news had gotten out by accident. Should Cat Noir have pushed her a little harder to make a statement earlier, while they still had control over how the information came out?

Now that he knew that Alya was part of their superhero team, Cat Noir wondered why she still treated Ladybug the way she did. Then he thought of how Alya treated even Marinette and Nino and the way she could push them for answers when she wanted to. Her journalist side was strong, even with her best friends. And yet Ladybug had somehow known she could be trusted with a Miraculous. Were Ladybug’s ‘hunches’ some kind of magic? If so, what did that say about Adrien and the epic way he’d failed to live up to her expectations when she’d given him the Snake Miraculous?

He snuck back into the school, de-transformed, and walked out the front door to meet his bodyguard. When they got home, he headed inside, forgetting for a moment how disobedient his eyes had been today. Then he spotted Nathalie in the foyer and forced his head down, muttering a greeting to her as he passed while sternly telling himself, _Don’t even look at her. Don’t even look at her._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm hoping to keep updating every day as much as possible, but I may end up needing to skip some days. I've nearly run out of already-written chapters. I need to write faster to keep up, but I wanted to warn you in case I don't. I do know where the story is going, though, so I'm not writing totally into the dark here.


	32. Chapter 32

Adrien sat on his couch, staring at the sixteen-ounce jar of moisturizer sitting on his coffee table. It was the last one. He’d already taken the rest to school and passed them out (noticing as he did so that yesterday’s inappropriate curiosity had faded enough to no longer be a problem). He’d made sure to give Marinette hers first, and she blushed and stuttered as she thanked him. Alya complained about preferential treatment, and Adrien knew she was joking, so it was especially satisfying to see her face when he immediately pulled out a jar for her. That was in the locker room, so before they left, he slipped one into Chloe’s locker, since he knew she wouldn’t accept it if he tried to give it to her in front of anyone.

Once they’d gotten to class, he’d given Alix and Miss Bustier each a jar, then one to Kim, telling him it was for Ondine. (Maybe Adrien had only met Ondine once, and that was when she’d been akumatized, but she was with Kim, and Kim was one of them, so that made her one of them.) He also passed a couple extra back to Marinette and Alya, explaining they were for Sabine and Nora.

“Dude,” Nino muttered, “you gotta lighten up on the gifts to all the ladies. Someone might think you’re trying to get yourself a harem.”

Adrien grimaced. Had Nino really needed to make that joke _after_ Adrien had blatantly included _their teacher_ and _Marinette’s mom_ in the group of women in question? “I’m just trying to help, Nino.”

“I know.” Nino nudged him with his elbow to let him know he was mostly joking. “But you’re starting to make me look bad.”

“Then I guess you’d better step up your game,” Adrien replied with a smirk.

During fencing practice, he’d given Kagami a jar, which she’d accepted gratefully even though she explained that her mother was making sure she had everything she might need.

Which only left one jar for one other lady.

_His_ lady.

The question was how to get it to her. It was too big and bulky to carry in his pocket as Cat Noir. And since he usually only saw Ladybug when they were fighting a villain, giving it to her before the fight didn’t seem the right time, but he wasn’t sure how to hold onto it until after the fight either. Maybe he’d have to just tell her he had something for her and ask her to meet up with him again. And hope she didn’t stand him up.

A single knock came from his door, then it opened and Nathalie entered. “Adrien, your father would like to see you.”

He went to his father’s atelier to find Gabriel at his workstation, as usual. “You wanted to see me, Father?”

Without looking up, Gabriel said, “You’ll be doing another interview with Nadja Chamak this evening.”

Adrien groaned internally but was careful not to let his annoyance show. “This evening?”

“In two hours.”

“Why so soon?”

“The show’s other guest is more elusive, so when they were able to get a commitment from her, they wanted to move sooner rather than later.”

“It’s not Mrs. LaCrux again, is it?”

“No. Apparently interest in that woman has entirely waned after your defense of her in the last interview. Tonight’s other guest is Ladybug.”

Adrien’s heart leapt into his throat, his dread instantly turning into anticipation. “Ladybug’s gonna be on the show?”

“You’ve seen the news, haven’t you? Ladybug’s pregnancy is all anyone has been talking about since yesterday evening.”

So that’s what it was about. Of course. This wasn’t gonna be easy on her, and he needed to be there for her. “What about Cat Noir?”

“The television station hasn’t been able to contact him, and they think Ladybug is the bigger story anyway. This will be her first interview on the topic of her pregnancy, and Ms. Chamak doesn’t want to risk losing her scoop to another reporter or give Ladybug time to back out.”

That made sense, but . . . “Why me, though?” Not that he was complaining. Though it would have been better to be able to just show up at the studio as Cat Noir and be there for his partner. It would be harder for him to deflect any awkward question toward her as himself, nor would he be able to be too overt in showing her his support, since _Adrien_ barely knew her.

“The people look up to you as their voice on this matter. Or at least the media looks to you as the voice of those affected by this matter.”

“They . . . they do?” He hadn’t heard it put in quite those terms before. “But I don’t speak for anyone else. I’m just me.”

His father actually graced him with a tiny, approving smile. “Then continue speaking as yourself, and I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

Adrien was shocked. “So, no coaching this time?”

“I believe the coaching you had for the last interview will suffice for this one as well. Despite going off-script last time, you did well, and both you and the Gabriel brand have been spoken of positively in the media. Sales are up. I’m confident that after this interview, the launch of our maternity line will be excellent.”

Adrien’s excitement at getting his father’s approval diminished a little—but not much. Even if his father was looking at things through a selfish lens, Adrien was showing him that he could be trusted to do some things on his own. It was a good sign, especially since he’d need Gabriel to believe he could be a responsible adult sooner rather than later, since Adrien had a baby on the way.

“I’ll do my best, Father. Thank you for believing in me.”

Gabriel gave him an enigmatic, considering look. “I’ve always believed in you, son. Why do you think I push you so hard?”

Adrien stared at his father, stunned. This was . . . not a conversation that he could have right now. Better to leave on a good note. Adrien picked his jaw up off the floor. “I’ll go get ready.”

As he dressed in the clothes Nathalie had laid out while he was away, Adrien looked again at the jar of moisturizer. He’d be seeing Ladybug soon. As himself and not Cat Noir, true, which might make the gift kind of weird, but . . . Hmm, no, this could work . . .

#

_Why am I doing this, again?_ Ladybug asked herself as she sat on the TV set with Nadja Chamak, waiting nervously as dozens of people moved around behind the cameras. _Oh, right, because I have to._

Like it or not, she was a public figure, and it was inevitable that people would have questions about her pregnancy. If she didn’t address them right away, there would only be speculation—not all of it favorable to her—and reporters hounding her everywhere Ladybug appeared until they got their answers. Really, she should have made a statement or something earlier. It was her own fault that she stalled until Alya called her out and made the whole thing public.

From the chair across from her, Nadja leaned toward her and said quietly, “Thank you again for choosing me to do this interview, Ladybug. Especially after . . . how things went last time. I promise I won’t be that pushy tonight.”

_You’d better not be_ , Ladybug thought but held it in. Instead, she smiled weakly. “I need to get some things out there, and aside from Alya, the Ladyblogger, you’re the reporter I know best.” Much better than Nadja had any idea about. When she’d overheard her mom talking to Nadja on the phone about it this morning, she decided that if she had to do it—and she did—she might as well give the scoop to a friend of the family.

“It’s just too bad Cat Noir couldn’t be here, too,” Nadja said.

Ladybug opened her yo-yo and tried to contact him, but it didn’t connect. “Yeah, sorry. I haven’t seen him since yesterday, and I don’t have a way to contact him if he’s not transformed.”

“Isn’t that risky?” Nadja asked. “What if there’s an emergency or a supervillain attack and he doesn’t hear about it on his own?”

That was a very good point, and one that Ladybug had considered from time to time. “If I knew how to contact him, I’d have a clue to his identity, and he’d have one to mine. And it’s more important to keep our identities secret.” As she gave the explanation, she couldn’t put as much resolve behind it as she usually did.

Nadja must have picked up on that. “Why is it so important to keep your identities secret?”

Ladybug shot a sidelong glance to the cameras facing them. There were no red recording lights on. Hopefully that meant Nadja wasn’t trying to get some extra questions recorded when Ladybug thought she was off the record. She needed to be careful anyway. “If we knew, then Hawk Moth could find out and potentially go after those we love.”

Nadja nodded in understanding. “I guess that makes sense. But it sounds like that’s a good reason to hide your identity from the public, not each other. If you two were the only ones who knew each other’s real identities, then the only way for Hawk Moth to exploit that knowledge would be if he akumatized or otherwise controlled one of you already. And if that happened, things would already be—to borrow a term from my military brother-in-law—FUBAR. Isn’t that right?”

_Effed up beyond all recovery_ , Ladybug mentally translated and sanitized. She saw a memory of a destroyed Paris, of her dear kitty all in white, of the power he wielded which nearly destroyed the universe with a flick of his finger. _You have no idea._ “There’s . . . another reason, too,” she admitted. Because that future had come from her partner finding out who she was. But that was something she really couldn’t risk telling anyone. “But I can’t go into it. So that topic’s off the table, okay?” She gave Nadja a stern look to make sure the reporter knew she was serious.

Nadja nodded easily. “Of course. Like I said, Ladybug, I’m not going to push. I learned my lesson last time.”

Someone from behind the cameras shouted, “We’re live in ten!”

Ladybug sat up straight and tried not to look nervous, giving herself a mental pep talk while things started up and Nadja welcomed viewers to the show. She wished her partner could have been here. Even just having his reassuring presence beside her would have helped to calm her nerves.

“Thank you so much for joining us, Ladybug,” Nadja said.

Ladybug summoned up her confidence and smiled. “Thank you, Nadja.”

“The news on everyone’s lips today is yesterday’s revelation that you’re pregnant, just like so many of the rest of us. The video of you caught by the Ladyblog didn’t have a lot of details about this news. What would you like Paris to know?”

Ladybug wasn’t sure whether she was supposed to look at Nadja or into the camera. It was easier to speak when she focused on someone’s face, so she looked at Nadja. “Yes, Nadja, I am pregnant. And just like you and so many of the rest of the citizens of Paris, it’s the result of Fairy Grandmother’s attack a few months ago.”

“So the speculations that you didn’t stop the attack because you had been caught by the gas are true,” Nadja clarified.

A familiar sense of shame settled into Ladybug’s chest. “Yes. I’m sorry. I’m very sorry to everyone that I failed to get to Fairy Grandmother in time to stop her.”

“Will this be your first child?”

Ladybug’s eyes popped wide, her spine stiffened, and her face heated. “What? I—Of c—” Too late, she caught herself, trying not to give away even that much of a clue to her identity.

Nadja’s pleased smile said that Ladybug’s reaction had said plenty regardless. Ladybug needed to watch herself better. Even if Nadja wasn’t pushing, she was a good reporter, and reporters had ways of getting at the truth. Ladybug had a feeling that the way she’d reacted to Nadja’s question had confirmed the rumors that Paris’s hero was a teen.

Satisfied with what she’d gotten, Nadja changed tacks. “Cat Noir wasn’t able to join us tonight, but I’m sure the question everyone is asking at this point is: Is Cat Noir the father of Ladybug’s baby?”

“No!” Ladybug stated, her voice raised not from embarrassment but out of a need to get this fact cleared up right away. “Cat Noir is _not_ the father of my baby. I hadn’t even transformed when I was caught by the gas.”

“Disappointing news for all the fans who’d like to see you two be a couple. I don’t suppose you’d like to share the name of the person who is the father.”

“Obviously, I can’t do that, Nadia.”

“I didn’t think so, but I had to ask. Now, we all know that Cat Noir also didn’t appear to fight Fairy Grandmother. Can you confirm for us whether he also had gotten caught by the gas?”

Ladybug hadn’t explicitly asked Cat Noir if he wanted to make that public, but she felt sure that he would be okay with it, now that her own pregnancy was revealed. “Yes, Nadja. Cat Noir told me that he also had gotten caught before transforming. And no, I wouldn’t tell you the name of the girl he was caught with even if I knew, which I don’t.”

Nadja gave a faint smile in acknowledgment of Ladybug cutting off her next question. “If you and Cat Noir don’t know each other’s identities and you were both caught before transforming, how do you know the two of you _weren’t_ caught together?”

Ladybug burst out laughing at the ludicrous idea. “Trust me, Nadja. I may not know who Cat Noir is, but I know who my baby’s father is, and he and Cat Noir are _very_ different people. There is _no way_.”

The reporter must have meant it as a joke to lighten the mood and momentarily grab the audience’s attention, because she chuckled along with Ladybug and moved on. “Another blow to your romantic fans. Ah, well. Let’s take a short break.”

The show cut to commercial, and Ladybug took a drink of water from the bottle sitting on the floor beside her chair. It was a good thing she hadn’t been drinking a minute ago, because she would have done a spit-take all over Nadja. She shared a sly smile with her host. “That was a pretty audacious question, Nadja.”

“Just trying to keep it interesting,” Nadja replied unapologetically.

When they came back on air a few minutes later, Ladybug was feeling much more relaxed and actually looking forward to the rest of the interview.

For about ten seconds.

Nadja beamed into the camera. “Now, let’s welcome our next guest, famed teen model Adrien Agreste!”

Ladybug jumped in her chair and spun in horror to see Adrien walking onto the stage, smiling politely. He was beautiful in black slacks and a silk dress shirt. And he was coming right for her.

Although she tried to keep the smile on her face from being too stiff, Ladybug was freaking out inside. Was she about to be exposed? Had Nadja somehow found out her secret and was about to reveal it to everyone? No, surely Adrien wouldn’t look so calm if that was the case. Surely he wouldn’t participate in something like that. Knowingly. But what if they hadn’t told him? No, no, that couldn’t be what this was. But why else would he be here?


	33. Chapter 33

Adrien was beginning to regret coming here. First there was Ladybug’s claim that the boy she loved was so different from him that the comparison was literally laughable. (Exactly how far away from being her type was he?) Now, as he walked onto the stage, she was staring at him in what looked a lot like horror.

Maybe it was because the last time she’d seen him as Adrien, she’d made her only mistake in choosing someone for a Miraculous. Was he an embarrassment to her? Was she afraid he’d mention it on TV? He wanted to reassure her that he wouldn’t and apologize again for messing up, but he couldn’t do that here. So as he took the chair beside her, he instead smiled and pretended nothing was wrong and he didn’t even notice how upset his presence was making her.

“Hi, Ladybug. Hi, Nadja. Thanks for having me back.”

“Thanks for being here, Adrien,” Nadja answered. “It seems even Paris’s number one superhero isn’t immune to your charms.”

“Heh. Um . . .” _She doesn’t look very charmed to me._ Adrien tried not to look too awkward. “If you say so, Nadja.”

“So, Adrien, how have things been since the last time we spoke? Are things going well with the mother of your child?”

Adrien curled up a little in embarrassment. It was still very weird to hear someone refer to Marinette that way. “Ah, yes. Things are going well. The baby’s healthy. I’m doing everything I can think of to help out. And no one’s been bothering her, which I’m very grateful for. How are _you_ doing?”

Nadja seemed surprised to be asked. “My baby and I are doing very well, thank you.”

“How’s Manon taking it?”

That got another look of surprise, but then Nadja chuckled. “She’s not thrilled about not being the baby anymore, but she’ll get over it. Now, I understand your father, Gabriel Agreste, is launching his new line of maternity fashion tomorrow.”

“That’s right,” Adrien said. Nathalie had briefed him on this little plug. After his father had paid for clothes _and_ expensive moisturizer for his friends, he didn’t have a problem with doing this much. “If I’m not mistaken, it looks like you’re wearing one of his designs.”

Nadja turned slightly toward the camera to show off her dress, as much as she could while sitting. “Yes, I am, and I’m very pleased with it. Stylish and comfortable. I predict the launch of this line and the opening of the Gabriel Maternity Boutique tomorrow will go very well.”

“I hope so,” Adrien said mildly. “I know Father’s been working hard to get everything ready in time.”

In all the time he was talking to Nadja, he didn’t look toward Ladybug, trying to avoid drawing additional attention to her while he could still see her stiff posture from the corner of his eye.

But now that the plug for his father’s company was done, Nadja changed the subject, directing her next question to Ladybug, who was either still afraid he was going to say something to embarrass her or was suffering an acute case of stage fright. “Ladybug, back to the news of your pregnancy. Can you tell us if the father of your child knows that you’re Ladybug?”

Adrien glanced toward Ladybug and saw her stiffen so badly she could have been a tree. He wanted to reach out to her, take her hand, rub her shoulders . . . but even if they hadn’t been on live TV, without his mask, he knew he still wouldn’t have had the guts to make such a move.

“N-no,” Ladybug said. “My identity must remain secret from everyone. If it wasn’t, Hawk Moth might be able to use it against me.”

“Of course,” Nadja said, nodding. “Very prudent. Don’t you think, Adrien?”

She was probably only including him in the conversation because it would be weird to have him sitting there being ignored, now that he was on stage. He didn’t really agree with her assessment, but he wasn’t sure it was a good idea to disagree either. “Ladybug’s the expert,” he said in a way that only implied agreement.

A spark of mischief came into the reporter’s eyes. “And what do you think of the idea that Ladybug and Cat Noir got caught by Fairy Grandmother’s gas together, unbeknownst to each other since they don’t know each other’s identities?”

Adrien knew Marinette couldn’t be Ladybug, since he’d seen the two of them together with his own eyes. Still, the thought put a wistful smile on his face. “If that were true, then I’d say that Cat Noir was the luckiest guy in the world.” At the time, he’d been glad that it hadn’t been Ladybug the gas had forced him to . . . um . . . that. ( _Still weird. Still so weird._ ) But he and Marinette had worked it out. He was sure now that he would have worked through it with Ladybug, too. And if someone had to have his baby, then he wished it could have been the girl he loved (if she had to have someone’s baby).

“So, you’re one of their fans who’d like to see the two of them get together?” Nadja interrupted his wandering thoughts.

“You could definitely say that. The guy clearly loves her like crazy. If I loved someone that much—and I’m not saying I don’t—then I’d certainly want people to root for me.”

Nadja didn’t let that slide. “What’s this? Could it be that your baby’s mother is becoming more than just a friend?”

Adrien laughed lightly. “No. And I’m not saying there _is_ someone I love, either. But if there were, I wouldn’t say anything about it publicly until it was much more certain than it is now.”

“Is there any chance this hypothetical someone is a certain superhero?” Nadja asked in such a teasing tone that it was clear the question wasn’t real journalistic inquiry but mere banter for the camera.

Adrien took two seconds to consider his answer. He wanted to say yes and confess his love to Ladybug. But that might confuse things, since she didn’t know that he and Cat Noir were the same person. And given the way she was _still_ staring at him with wide, worried eyes, Adrien didn’t think he had much chance of winning her over as himself, especially since they hardly ever interacted. So instead, he decided to use the opportunity to put in a good word for himself with her. As the voice of the people and all. “Not that Ladybug isn’t an amazing girl and totally crush-worthy,” he said, still speaking to Nadja but looking at his partner, “but I think a superhero should be with another superhero. Don’t you? There’s a certain symmetry to it.”

“Quite true,” Nadja said. “I’m sure many of Ladybug and Cat Noir’s fans would agree.” She returned her attention to Ladybug. “Since you’re not able to give us any more details about the personal side of your pregnancy, tell us about how it’s affecting your work as defender of Paris.”

Ladybug’s expression shifted strangely, the tense panic subsiding while an unexplained suspicion crept in. But when she spoke, she sounded like her usual cool, confident self. “It’s not. At least, not any more than I can help. That’s why I’ve pulled in extra teammates.”

“Right. Viperion, Pegasus, Carapace, and King Monkey. We’ve seen Carapace several times before all of this started, and a few people reported having seen the other three before as well. What can you tell us about them?”

“Not much, Nadja,” Ladybug answered. “I trust them all, and I think they’re doing a great job. I know they’re giving their best for Paris and our team.”

“And do you plan to keep them on the team once you’ve had your baby?”

Ladybug hesitated. “I’m . . . not ready to disclose any of our plans about that.”

Adrien wondered if she actually had any plans for that time. He hadn’t heard any. Things were crazy enough that he for one hadn’t really thought out that far ahead. Had she?

“Has your pregnancy and Cat Noir’s impending fatherhood put any kind of strain on the relationship between you two?” Nadja asked.

“Absolutely not,” Ladybug answered. “My partner and I are as solid as ever.”

 _Yes, we are, Milady_ , Adrien thought with satisfaction.

“I’m sure we’re all happy to hear that,” Nadja said, then moved on. “The last time Adrien joined us, he made a rather impassioned defense of your actions—or inactions—during the Fairy Grandmother attack. Did you catch it?”

Adrien bristled at the way she’d put it, as if she were trying to remind everyone that Ladybug hadn’t stopped the attack, but he held his tongue.

“Y-yes, I did. It was very kind of him.” She turned toward Adrien, looking a bit nervous still. “Thank you, A-Adrien. But I . . . I did mess up. I should have stopped the attack. This is all—”

“If you say ‘my fault’,” Adrien interrupted her, “I’m going to get angry. It wasn’t your fault, Ladybug. I’ve told Paris that, and I’ve tol—I’m _telling_ you. You did your best. We all know that, because you always do your best. It’s not your fault, and I _need_ you to stop blaming yourself. Will you do that for me? Please?” There was no reason for her to agree just for him. They barely knew each other (as far as she knew). And if she knew that he was her partner and shared in any blame she got, it would mean even less. But maybe, for the spokesman of the people that he’d apparently become, she’d listen.

She gazed into his eyes, beautiful and strangely vulnerable. He didn’t notice her tears until she blinked them away. “Okay.”

“Good.” He reached to the floor by his chair, where he’d asked a PA to hide the last jar of moisturizer. “I brought this for you, as a thank-you for everything you do for us. I’m told it’s the best brand of moisturizer for pregnancy.” As he handed it to her, his fingers brushed hers, and he felt a zing up his arm. He’d touched her so many times, but usually only when his hands were gloved in his costume. The feel of her costume-gloved hands on his bare skin was strange and exciting. “I, uh”—he cleared his throat—“I got them for all my pregnant friends, and I had an extra, so I thought you should have it.” Too late, he realized that it was probably rude of him not to have brought one for Nadja, too. He shot the host an apologetic look. “Sorry, Nadja. If I’d known I was coming here earlier, I’d have brought one for you, but I only found out at the last minute.”

Nadja was practically beaming at them. “It’s fine, Adrien. If you only have one left, you certainly should give it to Ladybug.”

Ladybug was looking at the jar in her hands in a way that Adrien couldn’t quite read. She was being very strange tonight. The tenseness in her posture had faded entirely, and the suspicion and fear from earlier were gone, too. But there was something almost a little sad in her face, even when she smiled. “Thank you. It’s a very kind gesture.”

#

 _Not bad, son_ , Gabriel thought, watching from the dark part of the studio as the interview concluded. He’d come in person just in case an opportunity to get Ladybug at a disadvantage presented itself. Even though none had, the night was not a loss. Nathalie had already informed him of a call from the manufacturer of that moisturizer, extremely grateful for the free advertising that Adrien had just given them, promising to send a complimentary box of the stuff to Adrien (“for his friends”) and inquiring about a possible business venture with Gabriel. In addition, Adrien’s coy tease regarding a possible love interest had social media absolutely exploding already. Gabriel didn’t know if Adrien really did have his eye on someone or not, but it didn’t matter, and it had been very well played. The gift to Ladybug and earnest plea for her to forgive herself would no doubt go over extremely well with the public, improving not only Adrien’s own image but also, by extension, the image of the Gabriel brand.

One day, Adrien would run the company. When that time came, Gabriel expected to be able to hand it over with confidence, assured that it would be in good hands.

Perhaps Gabriel should have told his son about his plans for the Miraculouses. It would have been helpful if Adrien could have used this opportunity to entrap Ladybug in some way or set her up. But even if Adrien would understand why Gabriel was doing what he did as Hawk Moth—which Gabriel was not as confident as he’d have liked to be, recently—it was extremely unlikely Adrien could actually be convinced to take part. Not even to save his mother. He was too much like Emilie that way. Too softhearted. Too emotional.

Seeing so much of her in him was a pain and a joy. But one day soon, Gabriel would have what he needed to save Emilie, and the pain would be gone.

As he stood far behind the cameras with Nathalie, he watched Ladybug get up and head for the exit. He itched with the need to transform, ambush Ladybug, and take what he needed from her now, without waiting. He wanted his wife back now. No, he wanted her back yesterday. But everything would be lost if he acted sloppily and exposed himself. So he fisted his hands at his sides, watched Ladybug leave unimpeded, and collected his son.

#

Marinette set the jar of moisturizer on her vanity with the other one. All that worry, all that blind panic, all for nothing. She knew the moment Adrien gave her the jar that he didn’t know her real identity. Because why would he give one to her again, acting like it was the first time? Obviously he had only been there to promote his father’s business. If anyone had noticed how badly she’d overreacted, she’d have given herself away.

It had been wrong of her to suspect something underhanded from Nadja, and even more so to worry that Adrien might have been involved. Nadja had promised that she’d learned her lesson. If she ever learned that Marinette was Ladybug, surely Nadja would be straightforward about it. And Adrien . . . He would never knowingly hurt anyone. It just wasn’t in him.

For a few wonderful seconds this morning, after he’d given her the jar at school, Marinette had felt special. Then he’d given one to everyone else. Because of course he would. Because Adrien was like that.

It was such a sweet, thoughtful gesture, and it made her heart ache with love for this boy, even as it underlined the fact that she was no more than a friend to him. She was beginning to lose hope that she’d ever be anything more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll probably need to take a several-day break now, as I've posted everything currently written, and I need to get ahead a bit. I've got lots of notes and many, many plot points for the rest of the story, so I know the shape of it, but there are enough plot threads that it's a bit tricky weaving them all together and making sure I hit all the points I want to hit. If you have any particular ideas of things you want to see or see addressed (or existing sub-plots you're especially interested in), feel free to post it in the comments. There's a high probability I've already got plans for some of the things you might mention, and other things won't work for what I'm doing, but you might point out some things that I hadn't considered and do need to address/answer.
> 
> Also, as a teaser, I'm in communication with an artist about a commission for some cool art that I can use to make a cover for this story. No idea yet what the timeline is, but I'm excited for it.


	34. Chapter 34

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the long break, everyone. But I've got the rest of the story pretty well outlined now. I'm gonna try to get back to posting one chapter a day. This is going to be a much longer fic than I'd originally planned. (I'm absolutely terrible at estimating how long a story is going to be or writing to a specific target word count.)

The next Monday, Adrien was dropped off at school a little earlier than usual. He put his bag in his locker, then went into the bathroom. When he came out, he heard quiet voices on the other side of the lockers. That wasn’t so strange, since class would start soon, but as he neared the end of the lockers, one of the voices stopped him in his tracks.

“Because _I’m_ more important, obviously.” That was the sort of thing Chloe might say, except the voice definitely didn’t belong to Chloe. It was softer—smaller, really—with a snobbish English accent. And it sounded vaguely familiar.

“But _I’m_ Max’s best friend,” protested another voice: Markov, Max’s little robot pal with incredibly advanced AI. “He always takes me to class with him.”

“Shush, you two,” Max said in a low, furtive voice. Adrien pictured him looking around for any listeners. “This is exactly why I can’t take you both in my bag. When I do, you argue too loudly. I’ve already had to cover for you twice.”

Adrien smirked in amusement, remembering the feigned coughing fit Max’d had the other day in their science class. He did feel a little bad for the guy. Plagg was enough of a handful to deal with on his own.

“Just tell people she’s another robot,” Markov suggested.

A tiny, offended snort came in reply.

Max sighed. “No one would believe that, Markov. Kaalki doesn’t look anything like a robot. And I need to have her with me in case a villain attacks. Kaalki, stop looking so smug. That doesn’t mean you’re more important.”

“I am to Paris. This small, metal golem of yours can’t do anything to help you fight evil.”

“I can, too!” Markov replied. “Knowledge is power, and I can—”

Max shushed them again. “Would you two please quiet down!? Someone might hear you. Markov, you’ll have to stay in my locker during class, but when we get home we’ll hang out all evening and do whatever you want. How does that sound?”

Adrien went back to the bathroom door and closed it again, then struck up a jaunty whistle as he sauntered toward his locker. When he came around to the other side of the lockers, he saw Max huddling in front of his locker with a guilty expression. “Morning, Max,” Adrien said as he got his things from his locker. “I heard voices. Talking to Markov again?”

Max smiled nervously. “Yep, just Markov!”

Adrien closed his locker and turned to see Alya and Marinette coming in. “Good morning, Marinette!” He noticed that she wasn’t wearing her usual clothes but grey pants with a turquoise, empire waist blouse. “Hey, those are some of the clothes you bought at my father’s shop the other day. They look really nice on you.”

Her cheeks turned pink. “Thanks, Adrien. You look nice in your clothes, too.”

He looked down to check, but no, he was wearing the same clothes he wore every day. He chuckled. “As opposed to out of my clothes?”

Only after the words had left his mouth did he really realize what he’d just said. His smile turned stiff. Marinette and Alya both turned red and looked away from him. Max was staring at him like he had no idea what to do.

Adrien forced another laugh. “Looks like I win this round of ‘most awkward response to a compliment’. Anyway, you still have an ultrasound appointment today, right?” _Please don’t change your mind about letting me come._

His attempt at humor seemed to work, since the other three relaxed. Even though her cheeks were still a little pink, Marinette said, “Yeah. We need to leave at ten-thirty.”

Adrien let out a relieved breath. “Okay. Good. I’m looking forward to it.”

Marinette and Alya went to their lockers and shuffled some things. Max took the opportunity to escape before any more tense moments could happen.

When the girls were done, Adrien asked Marinette, “How are you feeling? Want me to carry your things?”

Marinette froze up. Alya nudged her with an elbow. “Oh, uh, yeah!” Marinette blurted. “I feel fine, but if want—I mean, you don’t have to, but—”

Adrien took her bag and walked with her to class.

A while later, Adrien stood outside the door to the ultrasound room while Marinette got changed.

Plagg poked his head out of Adrien’s shirt. “I feel bad for Kaalki, having to share her owner like that.”

Adrien patted his kwami’s head. “You saying you’d get jealous?”

“Of course I would! Any kwami would! The bond between a kwami and their Miraculous owner is sacred!”

“I doubt Nooroo feels that way.”

Plagg’s ears drooped. “The way that jerk treats him is unconscionable! We need to take him down and save Nooroo!”

“We will, Plagg. Some day soon, we definitely will.” Hopefully before the babies came and he and Ladybug had even more responsibilities to divide their time.

The door opened, and Adrien went inside to wait with Marinette and Sabine. Marinette sat on the exam bed, fidgeting with her fingers.

To break the silence, Adrien asked Sabine, “How is your pregnancy going?”

“It’s going well. My doctor has me come in more frequently than Marinette has to because of my age, but everything is good so far. I don’t anticipate any problems.”

“That’s great. Is your husband excited?”

Sabine smiled. “It’s just like when we were young and expecting Marinette. He’s thrilled every time we talk about it, then suddenly worried when his imagination gets away with him, and I have to reassure him everything will be fine.”

“I can understand why he’d be like that. I—” Adrien darted a look at Marinette and decided it would probably be better not to mention the research he’d done, since she already looked nervous. “I’m sure you’re right. Everything will be fine. Did Marinette tell you . . . um, about Nathalie?”

Sabine’s eyebrows furrowed slightly. “I don’t believe so. Do I know her?”

Maybe he shouldn’t be spreading this around if his father wanted to keep it quiet—especially since he knew Marinette’s mom was a friend of Nadja Chamak—but he’d already started. “She’s my father’s personal assistant. When the gas hit . . .”

Sabine’s eyes widened. “Oh! I see.”

“So, I’m going to have a little sibling, too.” He tried to smile, but he could feel it come out a bit sickly. He was happy about having a sibling, for sure, but the way it was all happening made things kind of uncomfortable. “I think Father’s trying to keep it quiet, at least for now, so could you not mention it to anyone?”

“Of course, Adrien. Your . . . your mother has passed, hasn’t she?”

“Technically, she’s only missing. But she’s been gone more than a year. I think Father just doesn’t want to tell me she’s actually . . . gone.” He glanced up to Marinette to find her looking at him with sadness and sympathy in her eyes. At least he’d taken her mind off her nervousness.

Dr. Sienne came in and greeted them all, asking Marinette about how she was doing. Adrien tried as much as he could not to listen, in case Marinette felt embarrassed about any of her medical stuff. When she lay back on the bed and Dr. Sienne started up the ultrasound machine, Adrien went over to stand by Marinette’s side.

When the doctor told her to, Marinette pulled up the front of her hospital gown and pushed the top of her pants down slightly to expose her belly. As the doctor got the ultrasound wand ready, Adrien glanced at Marinette’s stomach.

His eyes widened, and his throat clenched up. Her stomach had still been pretty flat at her last ultrasound. But suddenly, it . . . wasn’t. It wasn’t huge, but there was a definite taut roundness to it that hadn’t been there before.

This wasn’t like her breasts getting bigger. That was something that could have happened under normal circumstances all on its own. At their age, all their bodies were still changing. He worked with a model a year older than him who showed up for a shoot one day, half a year after he’d last seen her, with boobs that had gone from nonexistent to distractingly huge. That was as extreme an example as he’d ever seen, but it had happened. Boobs getting bigger was normal.

But this . . . this . . . Nothing else could explain this away. It didn’t look like bloating or a big meal or weight gain. It was a baby bump. Even he could see that it couldn’t be anything else.

His friend’s body was changing to accommodate _his_ baby growing inside her.

Every time he thought he’d gotten used to this whole crazy situation, some new aspect of reality came along to smack him in the face and knock the air out of him.

“Adrien?” asked a small voice. “Are you okay?”

His eyes snapped to his friend’s face. He had the sudden urge to apologize, but he didn’t think she’d like that. “Does it . . . hurt?”

“What?”

He swallowed and nodded at her belly.

“Uh . . .” She sounded confused about what he was asking. “Not really. It’s weird and uncomfortable sometimes, but it’s not like it happened overnight. That moisturizer you gave me really helps my skin feel better.”

He was able to breathe again. “It does? Good. That’s good.”

The doctor was smirking at him. “Ready to start, you two?”

#

Ladybug had heard the term ‘urban jungle’ before, but this was ridiculous. Paris was unrecognizable. The ground was covered with moss, long grass, and underbrush that had sprung up straight through the concrete. Buildings, cars, and everything else was covered in moss and vines so thick that it was hard to tell what they were covering. Huge trees towered over everything but the tallest skyscrapers, their leafy branches casting everything below into shadow. Under the canopy of the trees, the humidity in the air was stifling. In short, the city of Paris had turned into a tropical jungle.

“Has anyone seen him?” Ladybug asked her team. The six of them were perched on branches high up one of the trees.

“I can’t see anything through all this vegetation,” Pegasus said.

“It’s hard to focus in this humidity,” Cat Noir complained. “I feel like I can barely breathe.”

“Feels pretty good to me,” Carapace said with a shrug, “but maybe that’s the turtle in me.”

King Monkey was leaping from branch to branch just for the fun of it. “This is awesome, guys! Come on, someone race me!”

Viperion climbed up to the branch beside Ladybug. “Jungle King’s turned the whole city into his home turf.”

“I hate it when they do that.” Ladybug considered the problem. “We need some room to see—and space to fight. I have an idea. Follow me.” She led them through the trees, running, leaping, and swinging, until they crossed over the plant-covered walls of the stadium. They dropped to the ground. “Carapace, how big can you make your Shelter?”

“I don’t know,” Carapace answered. “I’ve never tested it. What do you have in mind, Ladydude?”

“When we were fighting Anansi, your Shelter cut right through her web. If you can make a shelter big enough to cover this whole stadium, we can clear out some space to fight Jungle King.”

Carapace looked around, sizing up the task. “Ah, right.” He raised his shield above his head. “Shelter!”

At first, the green, dome-shaped energy shield only barely covered the group of heroes, but it quickly expanded, spreading out in a wider and wider circle around them. As it did so, it cut through vegetation and tree trunks. The giant trees fell onto the expanding shield with deafening bangs but were brushed aside like dry leaves as the shield continued to grow. When the shield’s growth finally stopped, the entire area around them looked like it had been bulldozed, and the sky above them was clear.

“This good enough?” Carapace asked, his voice strained.

“It’s perfect,” Ladybug told him. “Good work. You can drop it now.”

The energy shield vanished, and Carapace relaxed with a whoosh of breath. Sunlight filled the newly-cleared arena.

Cat Noir relaxed with his stick resting on his shoulders, his face raised to bask in the sun. “So, how do we get him here?”

“Does anyone know what Jungle King wants?” Ladybug asked.

No one did. Maybe if one of them had been able to get to the villain earlier, as soon as he got akumatized, but the forestation of Paris had happened in less than a minute, so it was hard to tell where it had even originated.

“If we can’t use Jungle King’s own goal as bait,” Ladybug concluded, “I guess we’ll have to use Hawk Moth’s. We know our Miraculouses are his target, so he’s probably already got Jungle King searching for us.”

“Ladybug, look!”

She turned to see Viperion pointing to the sky over the south side of the arena wall, where a human figure was making an arc through the air toward them.

“That didn’t take long,” Carapace observed.

“Viperion, activate your Second Chance!” Ladybug ordered. “King Monkey, use your Uproar!” Both heroes activated their special powers, King Monkey leaping to the front of the group with the fake banana he now held in one hand.

Fifty yards away, Jungle King landed, then immediately bounded into the air toward them. Before he could land again, King Monkey threw the banana, trying to hit Jungle King with it while he couldn’t change the direction of his movement.

In mid-air, Jungle King twisted his body, dodging the banana so that it fell uselessly dozens of yards behind him.

“Crap,” King Monkey muttered.

Jungle King landed in front of them, looking like something straight out of an old Tarzan movie. Long, messy hair, chiseled pecs, and wearing nothing but a loincloth and big necklace made of sharp teeth.

He wasn’t alone. He’d brought a dozen apes with him.

“The akuma must be in his necklace!” Ladybug called out. Since it was unlikely the man had already been wearing a loincloth when he’d been akumatized, it was the safe bet.

The team moved instantly into formation, with Carapace and Pegasus in front, Viperion behind, and Ladybug farther back with Cat Noir standing protectively in front of her. King Monkey rushed forward on all fours, trying to slip past the group of enemies to retrieve the banana which held the power of his Uproar so he could try again to hit Jungle King with it.

Carapace and Pegasus engaged with the apes hand-to-hand while Jungle King himself hung back. Suddenly, Viperion darted toward King Monkey, tackling him from the side just as Jungle King sprang with lightning speed right at the spot King Monkey would have been. The two heroes rolled to the left and leapt to their feet to face the villain.

Completely ignoring Viperion, Jungle King stalked toward the other hero. “Only room for one king in this jungle, monkey boy,” he said with a predatory leer. “Give me your Miraculous.” He lunged.

King Monkey backflipped out of the way. “Come and get it.” With a series of flips and hops, he danced backward, farther away from the rest of the group—luring Jungle King away from the magic banana.

Ladybug threw her yo-yo into the air and shouted, “Lucky Charm!” A ladybug-print hockey stick fell into her hands. She looked from it to Jungle King to the banana lying forgotten on the field.

“Cat Noir!” Ladybug shouted. “Help take out the apes! I’m going after the banana!” She wasn’t actually sure the Uproar power would still work if someone else threw the banana at the target, but she figured it was like her Lucky Charm and anyone could use it once it was created.

“Ladybug, no! It’s too dangerous!” shouted Cat Noir.

“Trust me!” she shouted back, already running toward the banana which was seemingly forgotten by their enemies. She sprinted past the apes, dodging their flailing limbs, without any of them noticing her. She glanced back to see that Cat Noir, Carapace, and Pegasus were keeping them busy, having already rendered half of them unconscious. When she reached the banana, she roll-jumped over it, and came up on her feet facing the spot where Jungle King and King Monkey were fighting. Viperion was hanging back, keeping an eye on everything that was happening.

King Monkey had his hands locked with Jungle King, face-to-face, each trying to force the other back or down. Their feet shuffled as they spun together like the whole thing was some kind of very angry dance. For a moment, they were turned so that Jungle King’s back faced Ladybug.

With the end of the hockey stick, she flipped the banana into the air, then smacked it hard with the stick toward Jungle King.

The instant after she did so, Jungle King swept his feet out, spinning so that King Monkey was suddenly the one with his back to the oncoming banana. For a split-second, Ladybug froze in panic. But nearly as soon as it happened, Viperion once again tackled King Monkey out of the way, breaking his grip with Jungle King, leaving the villain wide-open to be hit with the banana, which bumped against his bare chest with a little squeak.

The apes who were still conscious and fighting suddenly turned into ordinary people—and then back into apes—and then people again. The three heroes fighting them worked hard to attack only when they were apes, but there was no warning when they changed, and Pegasus ended up accidentally backhanding Mr. Damocles in the face.

“Sorry!” Pegasus yelped at a very confused and angry-looking principal, right before Mr. Damocles turned back into an orangutan.

Ladybug spun to Viperion and King Monkey, who had Jungle King cornered between them. “Hurry!”

Dodging a hit from King Monkey’s staff, Jungle King leapt backward into a single-hand handspring—then lost all his super-strength in the middle of it and fell right on his face.

Viperion swooped in, snatched the tooth necklace off the villain, and tore it in two.

An akuma fluttered out. Ladybug caught it and purified it, then tossed Lucky Charm into the air and shouted, “Miraculous Ladybug!”

The stadium returned to normal, and everyone except the heroes and the man who had been Jungle King disappeared.

“Don’t anyone run off yet!” Ladybug told her team. She took a moment to make sure the man was okay and sent him on his way, then gathered the team in for a huddle on the field. “We don’t have long before Carapace detransforms. Pegasus, if he can’t make it all the way back, you’re in charge of helping him.”

Pegasus saluted. “Yes, ma’am.”

Viperion’s bracelet beeped, reminding her that he was on a timer, too. She nodded at him. “You might want to go with them, too. Now, does anyone have any guesses why that villain went straight for King Monkey’s Miraculous and didn’t show any interest in the rest of ours?”

No one had an immediate response.

“Maybe he really was just jealous of his name?” Cat Noir guessed.

“It is strange,” Viperion mused. “Before, villains always wanted Ladybug’s and Cat Noir’s Miraculouses, then for a while it seemed like they were all trying to get mine, but this one ignored me when I was just as close as King Monkey and Ladybug when she was away from the rest of us. He didn’t even command any of his apes to go after her when they could have just reached out and grabbed her.”

Cat Noir sent Ladybug a dirty look, silently chastising her for putting herself in danger. But he had trusted her when she’d asked him to, and it had worked out just as she’d thought it would. Which was probably why he wasn’t actually saying anything about it. But it was clear he still didn’t like it.

Carapace’s bracelet beeped a one-minute warning.

“We’ll all need to be on-guard from here out,” Ladybug told the team. “If Hawk Moth is randomizing which Miraculous he’s going after from fight to fight, we’ll need to all be wary until we figure out who’s the primary target. And we need to keep making sure to watch each other’s backs.” They all nodded in agreement. “You guys had better get back before you detransform.”

They did a six-way fist-bump, broke the huddle, and most of the guys took off. When it was just Ladybug and Cat Noir standing alone on the field, he finally spoke.

“I know it worked out, but I wish you wouldn’t put yourself in danger like that. I just about had a heart attack.”

“I know, Cat Noir, but believe me, I wouldn’t put my baby in danger if I didn’t have to. I read the situation and reacted. And I was right. But everything happened too fast for me to stop and explain it to you.”

He moved closer to her. “I am worried about your baby, Ladybug, but I’m also worried about you. I don’t know if you noticed, but you weren’t as fast as usual, and that roll you did looked a little sloppy.”

Her shoulders slumped, and her hand went to her growing belly. “I didn’t notice. So, I _am_ starting to get slow and awkward?”

“I know you saw an opening that needed to be acted on immediately, but you could have just as easily told me what to do. We’ve worked together long enough, I would have understood. As soon as you took off, I knew what your plan was. You didn’t _need_ to stop to explain it.”

One corner of her mouth pulled up. “You’re right, Cat Noir. But I’m . . . not used to hanging back all the time. I know I can count on you. I’ll try not to take any more risks than I absolutely have to.”

His eyes softened. “Thank you, Milady.”


	35. Chapter 35

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's that? You thought Marc wasn't in this story? So did I! But I decided this story's a good opportunity to play with rare pairs, so here he is. (I deliberately didn't tag all the ships that end up getting shipped in this fic, to keep various background ships a surprise.)

One day between classes, Marinette was headed up the stairs back to class when she heard a little mouse whisper her name. At least, that was what it sounded like. She stopped on the third step and looked around. “Hello?”

“Marinette,” whispered the little mouse voice from somewhere below her.

She squatted down and looked through the slats between steps—and saw a pair of wide, green eyes looking back at her from the shadows under the stairs. “Marc?”

“Can I talk to you for a minute?” he whispered.

It was nearly time for class, but he sounded awfully desperate, so she descended the steps and met him under the stairs. “What’s up?”

His arms were clutched around his notebook, his shoulders hunched nervously. “Over here.”

She followed him to a bench against the wall under the stairs and sat beside him. “Is something wrong?”

“Yes! And I need your advice.”

That took her aback. “ _My_ advice? Why?”

“I heard it was your idea for Adrien to handle the big internet reveal about you two the way he did, with the video and all.”

“It was,” she acknowledged, not sure where he was going with this.

“So, I was hoping you could tell me what to do about my problem.”

She waited for him to continue. When he didn’t, she prompted, “Which is . . . ?”

He jerked. “You haven’t heard?”

“Should I have?”

His eyes were big and desperate. “It’s been all over the internet since two days ago!”

“Oh. I’ve been pretty busy with a design project I’m trying to fin—Wait, _what_ has?”

“About me and Mireille.”

Marinette’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. “You and Mireille? The weather girl?”

Marc’s expression mirrored hers. “I’m getting death threats!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” She waved her hands around as if she could clear the crazy from the air. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Maybe you could start at the beginning?” She was definitely going to be late to class, but this seemed like an extenuating circumstance.

Marc sat back, his hands fidgeting with the notebook in his lap. “Okay, so . . . Mireille and I are in the same class. I never really talked to her before. I never really talked to anyone in my class, mostly. But she’s so incredibly popular, and everyone likes her, and that was even before she won that weather girl contest. Now, it’s like she’s . . . an entirely different species. Ya know?”

If she hadn’t gotten to be friends with Adrien, Marinette probably would have seen _him_ that way. Sometimes, she still did. “Yeah.”

“One day, I was in this bookstore, and I saw her there, too. I figured she probably didn’t know who I was, and I don’t really know how to just go up and say hi to people anyway, so I pretended not to see her. But then she saw me, and she came over and started making small talk. I was so surprised she even recognized me, I just kind of froze up. I had my notebook with me, so she asked me what I was writing, and I kind of started babbling while I tried to figure out how to escape . . . ”

Marinette winced in sympathy. All of this was sounding painfully familiar.

“ . . . and then . . . ” Marc switched to tugging nervously on the ends of his fingerless gloves. “ . . . that was when Fairy Grandmother’s gas hit us.”

Marinette gasped. “No!”

Marc cringed and nodded. “It was the first time I’d ever spoken to her, and I know she was just trying to be polite. And the next thing we knew . . . ” He curled up, looking like he wanted to die from embarrassment. After a few seconds, he uncurled a little and was able to continue, but he kept fidgeting with his gloves. “I ran away, and by the time school started the next day, we all understood what had happened. I saw her in class, but I was too afraid to say anything. I didn’t even know what _to_ say. She didn’t talk to me, either. From the way she acted, you’d think nothing had happened, except if I walked past her or someone said my name, she’d flinch. I realized after a couple days that she wanted to pretend nothing had happened, and I was fine with that.”

“Your class didn’t demand to know who had done what with whom?” Marinette asked.

“No, they did. But only one other couple had gotten caught together, and one girl with a guy none of us knew. So when Mireille said nothing happened, everyone believed her, and by the time they got to me, all I had to do was shake my head. No one would have ever had to know, if not for . . . ”

“The pregnancies.”

“When she found out, she did tell me. It was the second time we ever spoke, and she told me she’s having my baby. I told her I’d help her if she wanted, that I’d do whatever she wanted me to. She said . . . she could handle it herself.”

“She didn’t want to let you be involved?” Given the situation, Marinette could understand where Mireille was coming from, but it still seemed awfully cold.

He shook his head. “Nathaniel told me how all the guys in your class are helping the girls out, how everyone’s pulling together. Our class isn’t like yours. So we went back to pretending nothing had happened. Except she didn’t want to tell anyone that she was pregnant at all.”

“We’ve got one in our class like that, too.”

“You mean Chloe?”

“You know?”

“Nathaniel told me. He said I’m supposed to keep it secret, though, until she makes it public.”

“Yeah, she’s not doing a great job of hiding it. I guess everyone in class has probably figured it out by now.”

“A couple months ago, I finally got up the nerve to ask Mireille about it. She said she was afraid of losing her weather girl job if it got out.”

“ _If_ it got out?” Marinette repeated.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. But it wasn’t really my business, and I could still barely manage to talk to her. I thought she had a plan or something. But she didn’t. A couple days ago, someone took a photo that makes it pretty obvious she’s pregnant and posted it all over the internet. A reporter caught her off-guard, and she ended up confessing everything—including my name and the fact that I’m her classmate.”

Now things were starting to come together. “And her fans are sending you hate mail.”

Marc nodded miserably. “It wasn’t my fault. And I’d help if I could, but she doesn’t want my help. And now everyone in class keeps staring at me, and a couple of the other guys keep asking me weird questions, and I keep getting creepy letters.”

“You’re actually getting death threats?”

“Some of them. Things like how I’m a monster, I’m scum, I should die, I should kill myself—”

“Marc, stop! You shouldn’t be reading those. You need to have someone screen your mail.”

“Like who?”

“Your parents?”

“My parents aren’t . . . taking it very well.”

“Oh.” That was awful. Marinette felt a sudden surge of gratitude for the unconditional love and support her own parents were giving her through all of this. “What about Nathaniel?”

“He has enough on his plate with Alix and the twins.”

That was true. She tried to think of another suggestion.

“I don’t need a shield, Marinette. I need a solution. You came up with something for Adrien and you. You’re not getting hate mail from his fans, are you?”

“No, I’m not. Part of that is because of what he’s said publicly, but part of it, I think . . . ” _How do I put this?_

Marc looked at her, his green eyes wide like a scared baby deer. “What?”

“The fact is, Marc . . . you’re the guy. So it’s different. It’s not fair, and it sucks, but . . . to her fans, Mireille is young and innocent and pure, and you’re the guy who . . . ” As he looked at her with those big, frightened eyes, it clicked. She knew how to solve his problem. Hopefully. A grin slowly spread across her face.

That made Marc look nervous. “What is it?”

“If all Mireille’s fans know about you is your name and that you’re in her class, they’re probably picturing someone big, ugly, and mean. They think you’re someone Mireille needs to be protected from. All you need to do is show them you’re not.”

“Okay . . . . How do I do that?”

Marinette tapped her chin in thought. “Can I ask you something personal?”

He nodded.

“Do you like Mireille?”

“I guess so. I mean, I don’t _dis_ like her. But I barely know her.”

“You don’t have any . . . romantic feelings for her?”

He sighed. “Honestly, I’m mostly just intimidated by her. Her popularity. Her fame. Even after all that happened, the thought of even speaking to her terrifies me. I want to help, and I . . . I’m gonna be a _father_ , but none of it feels real. And Nathaniel talks about how he’s helping Alix, and seeing his kids on the ultrasound and how it made him feel, and . . . ” Marc clenched his fists in his lap. “I feel like I’m missing something. What do I do, Marinette?”

Her heart hurt for him. “I’ll tell you what to do, Marc. First, you need to get her fans off your back. The way to do that is to show them that you’re not the big bully they’re all imagining you to be. You need Mireille to post some pictures of the two of you together. They don’t have to be coupley or anything. I bet even just a good photo of you on her social media with a few nice words about you would be enough.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because once they get a look at your sweet, innocent face and those adorable puppy dog eyes, only a real monster could keep hating you.”

“I’m not sure that’s a very flattering description for a guy, Marinette.”

“Trust me. Innocent, adorable puppy dog is exactly what you need to be for the public right now. In other words, just be yourself. You asked my advice, didn’t you?”

He still looked uncertain, but he said, “Okay. If you’re sure. But how do I get her to post something like that? I can barely speak to her.”

Marinette chewed her lip. “I guess I can talk to her. She’s probably not super happy with the way the media is right now, either. But it would still be good to get some nice pics of the two of you getting along. Oh! I bet Adrien could hook you up with a photographer. You should ask him.”

Marc physically leaned away from the suggestion. “I couldn’t do that. I don’t need to bother Adrien.”

“Sure you can! You’re Adrien’s friend, right?”

“More like a friend of a friend,” he muttered.

She laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Trust me, to Adrien, a friend of a friend _is_ a friend. I’m sure he’ll help out if he can.”

“Well . . . okay. If you’re sure. I . . . I’ll try.”

“Good. Now, about your other problem.” She leaned back on the bench and considered it. “I’m guessing you won’t be able to just go up to her and ask her to get to know you and let you be involved with your baby.”

He blushed at the very thought.

“Right. How about a group date, then? Well, not date-date. More like friends-who-are-having-babies-together date? I’d bet Nathaniel and Alix would go on something like that with you, and that might help you feel comfortable enough to talk to Mireille. Or she could invite a couple of her friends, if she knows someone else in that boat.”

Marc watched her uncertainly. “That . . . might work. It is easier to talk when there are other people I know there. What if you and Adrien went, too?”

Marinette gulped. “What? M-me and Adrien?”

“Yeah. You guys are just friends, too, right? It wouldn’t really be the same with any of the couples who are actually couples.”

On the plus side, apparently Nathaniel had taken Alya’s warning about keeping Marinette’s crush secret seriously, if he hadn’t told Marc about it. And the idea of going out with Adrien and some of their friends _did_ sound awfully nice. And it _would_ help Marc and Mireille get better acquainted. “Well, I _guess_ I could ask him about it.”


	36. Chapter 36

Ladybug knelt on a rooftop, watching the fight below through the screen on her yo-yo. Thank goodness it had a night vision mode, or she’d be totally blind. Beside her, Viperion watched the same thing through the screen on his lyre.

On the street below, Cat Noir, Pegasus, and Carapace were fighting the villain called Blackout. They’d already gotten any people they could find to a safe distance, so the three of them were free to trash the area as needed during the fight.

Blackout’s power had shut off any kind of light for at least a mile around them, including somehow dampening what little light came from the stars above. It was a new moon, so the night would already have been dark once all the electric lights were snuffed, but blocking the starlight too made it hard to even see the edge of the roof she was sitting on. It was a good thing their weapons were magic, since a regular night vision camera probably wouldn’t work in this kind of darkness.

“Any problems yet?” she asked Viperion. She’d had him activate his Second Chance two minutes ago and hadn’t heard a peep from him since.

“Not yet.” The outline of Viperion’s face was barely visible in the light from his lyre’s screen. “They’d better wrap this up fast before my time runs out, or we won’t have a do-over. Do you want me to go down and help?”

She looked back to her screen. “No. I think it would only add to the confusion.”

Blackout was totally focused on Cat Noir, who was matching him blow-for-blow, unslowed by the darkness thanks to his native night vision. Pegasus and Carapace were doing their best to help, but they were basically blind, relying on Ladybug’s instructions in their earpieces, and it wasn’t turning out to be a very efficient way of fighting.

She watched the movement of the fight for another thirty seconds. “Okay, I have an idea. Pegasus, hide behind that car five paces to your left. Carapace, get inside the building across from you and keep out of Blackout’s line of sight. Both of you be ready to activate your special abilities. Cat Noir, get your Cataclysm ready.”

All three acknowledge the directions, and Cat Noir shouted for his Cataclysm as he dodge-danced around Blackout’s punches. A few seconds later, Carapace and Pegasus said they were in position.

“On my mark, Pegasus, create a portal from right in front of the car to inside the building where Carapace is. Cat Noir, whenever you can, I need you to lure or knock Blackout into the car Pegasus is hiding behind.”

“Aaah,” Cat Noir said with a smile in his voice. “I gotcha, Milady.” It only took him a few moments to land a kick to Blackout’s gut which sent the villain hurtling toward the car.

“Pegasus, now!” Ladybug ordered.

A glowing portal broke through the darkness, appearing a moment before Blackout flew through it. A window on the other side of the street glowed as the portal’s exit appeared inside the building.

“Cat Noir, follow him through!” Ladybug said, but she didn’t really need to. Cat Noir was already doing it, having correctly guessed her plan. As soon as Cat Noir disappeared through the portal, Ladybug yelled, “Carapace, Shelter them both!”

The window lit up more with the green glow of Carapace’s Shelter. Ladybug didn’t have a great view through the window, but she saw Blackout make two failed attempts to escape the trap before Cat Noir landed his Cataclysm and freed the villain’s akuma.

Light flooded the street around them as Blackout’s darkness disappeared. It was still night time, but the street lamps, car headlights, store lights, and all the other lights in a city made it seem like daytime compared with the pitch blackness of a moment ago.

Ladybug and Viperion dropped to the street and ran into the building, where Ladybug captured and purified the akuma. She waited until they were all back out on the sidewalk before sending her magic ladybugs to clean up the mess they’d all made.

They shared a group fist bump. “Good work, guys,” said Ladybug. “Carapace, good work spotting the villain going after Cat Noir this time. I really think we’re getting the hang of figuring out who Hawk Moth is targeting.”

“No sweat,” said Carapace. “These villains aren’t exactly subtle.”

“Indeed,” agreed Pegasus. “Half the time they just shout out which Miraculous they want.”

“This can only go on for so long.” Viperion’s voice was soft and contemplative. “Hawk Moth will probably find a way to escalate or change tactics soon.”

“You’re right,” Ladybug agreed. “But for now, I think we can enjoy the win.”

Someone’s Miraculous beeped.

“We’d all better get home. Good night, guys!” Ladybug swung away, making good time back to her home, and dropped onto her terrace and through her hatch before detransforming.

It was only a little after nine p.m., but it had been a long day. Marinette lay on her bed to relax for a few minutes before she had to get up to finish her homework. Her hand flopped onto her belly, and she reached for the jar of moisturizer, deciding that as long as she was lying here, she might as well rub some of it on.

Her belly was getting big. It felt strange under her hand, tight and round. Most of the time, it still didn’t really feel like her own body, even though she’d lived with this growing bump long enough to get sort of used to it being there. She smoothed moisturizer over her skin, enjoying the light scent. “I think we’re really getting into a good rhythm as a team, Tikki.”

Her kwami floated down to rest beside her on her cat pillow. “You’re doing great. You’re a wonderful team leader, Marinette.”

“It’s going better than I expected. I’m so glad to have all of them helping out and taking the pressure off me. If it was still just me and Cat Noir right now, I don’t know how—”

Something fluttered inside her belly, and it wasn’t butterflies.

It wasn’t really her belly, either.

“Tikki,” Marinette whispered. “I felt something.”

Tikki swooped down to plaster herself against Marinette’s baby bump. After a second, the fluttering feeling came again, and Tikki giggled.

“Is something wrong?” Marinette asked.

“Nothing’s wrong, Marinette.” Tikki laughed again. “That’s your baby moving.”

“What?” Marinette pressed both hands flat against her belly and focused on the feelings inside: sudden, sporadic movement that wasn’t coming from anything she did. “It’s the baby,” she whispered in awe. Tears filled her eyes, and she couldn’t help smiling. “My baby’s moving. Tikki, I can feel it.”

Knowing it was there was one thing. Seeing and feeling the changes in her body were something else. Hearing the baby’s heartbeat on a monitor was amazing. But this . . . this was beyond words. It felt like her first real, tangible connection between her and her baby.

“My baby,” she whispered, and then again. “My baby. My baby. Tikki, I have a baby. I’m a mommy.” It was like discovering she was pregnant all over again. Which was a little silly, she knew, considering that by this point it was pretty obvious to everyone that she was pregnant. But now she could _feel_ the little one moving around inside her.

The fluttering passed, and while she was glad to have been able to share the moment with Tikki, she had to tell someone else. She got down the ladder from her bed to her floor as quickly as she could (not as quickly as usual by now), then hurried down the stairs to the living room, where her mom and dad were watching TV.

“What is it, Marinette?” Tom asked, jerking in alarm when he saw the tears on her face. “What’s wrong?”

She shook her head, smiling and crying. Her throat was tight with emotion, but she needed to get the words out before her parents thought something was seriously wrong. “I felt the baby move.”

Tom blinked, momentarily stunned by the news, but Sabine smiled and pulled herself off the couch to wrap Marinette in a hug.

Marinette hugged her mom’s shoulders as tight as she could. “Mom, it’s . . . it’s . . . ”

“I know, sweetheart.” Sabine pulled back and smiled at her, cupping Marinette’s cheek in her palm. “I know. I can already feel your little brother or sister moving, too.”

For Marinette, it was a magical bonding moment with her mom, knowing that Sabine understood the feelings Marinette wanted to share but couldn’t figure out how to express, because she was right there with her—and had gone through it before with her, in a different way. Tom continued to sit on the couch, watching the two of them with a sort of confused joy, and Marinette wanted to share the moment with him, too, but . . . well, it wasn’t like she could explain it to him. It wasn’t the sort of thing a man could possibly understand.

She felt a great swell of pity for the male half of the species, who could never know the strange wonder that she’d just discovered.

#

Phone? Check.

Wallet? Check.

Plagg? Check.

Adrien patted his pockets one more time to make sure he had everything.

“Feeling nervous, lover boy?” asked a voice from inside his shirt.

“It’s not like that, Plagg. Come on.” He really didn’t need his kwami’s teasing right now.

“Not like what?” Plagg asked. “Not like a date with the mother of your child?”

Adrien checked his hair in his bathroom mirror, smoothing his bangs into place. “Exactly. It’s not like that at all.”

Plagg flew out of his pocket so Adrien could watch him count off on his non-existent fingers. “You’re meeting her at a specific place and time, you’re wearing different clothes than she normally sees you in, and you’re primping.”

The t-shirt and over-shirt he was wearing were still the same style he normally wore, just a little nicer material. And he wasn’t fussing with his hair any more than usual—though if he was, it was only because he’d woken up with bed-head. “None of those things mean it’s a date. Not like you’re implying, anyway. It’s just some friends getting together.”

Plagg leaned in close to Adrien’s face. “Is it?” he asked in suggestive tone.

Adrien leaned away from him, crossing his arms. “Why are you so determined to have me see Marinette as anything else?”

The kwami flew a circle around Adrien’s head, making a sound of exasperation. “Because it’ll save all of us a lot of time and energy in the long run. Not that watching the two of you flounder around like a couple of fish in not enough water isn’t a highlight of my day.”

Adrien sighed. Sometimes he felt like he had no idea what was going through Plagg’s head. “This isn’t olden times, Plagg. People don’t _have_ to get married just because they accidentally end up sharing a baby.”

Plagg made a frustrated noise and rolled his eyes dramatically.

Adrien glared at him and pointedly opened his outer shirt, waiting until Plagg went back into his pocket. He left the bathroom, giving his pockets one last pat.

“You’re fussing again,” a small, muffled voice pointed out.

Adrien headed for his bedroom door, determined not to get drawn into an argument again. “It’s been forever since I’ve gotten to do something fun like this on a Saturday. And this _friends_ -date is important to Marc, so I don’t want to do anything to screw it up. I’m leaving now, so hush if you don’t want Nathalie to hear you.”

To his surprise, it wasn’t Nathalie standing in the foyer but Gabriel.

“Father?” Adrien asked, worry coiling up in his gut. Would his father tell him there’d been some change of plans and he couldn’t go out?

“Hello, Adrien.” Gabriel looked up from the tablet in his hand and frowned. “Where are you going?”

That wasn’t a good sign. Adrien’s shoulders slumped. “Out to meet some friends. Remember? I told you about it on Tuesday, and you said it was fine.”

Gabriel’s frown didn’t lessen. “Which friends?”

“Marinette, Nathaniel, Alix, and Marc. Marc’s really shy, so he needs a buffer so he can get to know Mireille, and the rest of us wanted to help.”

The lines between Gabriel’s eyebrows smoothed. “Ah, yes. The weather girl.”

It was a move in the right direction, so Adrien pushed the reminder. “You had a photographer take some photos for them to help smooth out the media uproar when it came out that Mireille is pregnant. I wanted to thank you for that. It really helped.”

Gabriel hummed thoughtfully and pulled up something on his tablet. “Your friend is surprisingly photogenic,” he said, flipping through what Adrien assumed were photos, “when he bothers to face the camera.”

“He’s just not used to being the center of attention,” Adrien explained. And from what he’d heard, Marc’s obvious shyness had been part of the reason the photos had worked so well, not that Adrien understood why.

“Mireille has a sizable fan base in Paris,” Gabriel noted. “And she’s nearly universally loved. It’s not a bad idea to be seen out with her. It was clever of you to think of it.”

Adrien fought not to wince at the suggestion that he was doing this as a publicity stunt instead of to help his friend. His father _approved_ , after all—though even that wasn’t something Adrien could take credit for. “It was Marinette’s idea.”

Gabriel’s mouth curled into a very small smile. “Was it, now?”

“Can I go, Father? I don’t want to be late.”

Gabriel waved him toward the door. “You may go. Try to take some photos for your social media accounts.”

“I will.” Adrien hurried out the door before Gabriel had a chance to change his mind.


	37. Chapter 37

_Reverser and Mightillustrator flew high over Paris, up and away from the spreading cloud of gas._

“ _There! Near the Champs-Élysées!” Reverser pointed to a floating figure, tiny from this distance. “The gas is coming from her!”_

“ _It’s making everyone act strangely,” said Mightillustrator. “We can’t wait for Ladybug and Cat Noir. We’ll have to hold her off until they get here.” He drew two gas masks on his magic tablet, and the items popped into existence. Now protected from the gas, the heroes flew lower to confront the villain known as Fairy Grandmother._

_When she saw them, her eyes blazed with hatred. “What’s this? Heroes?”_

“ _You want to control everyone, fiend?” Reverser called a magical paper airplane into existence. “Now you control nothing! Reversion!”_

_The paper airplane flew toward the villain, striking her dead in the chest, and she cried out in frustration as all the people under the power of her gas came to their senses._

_The two heroes fought her, and soon Ladybug and Cat Noir showed up._

“ _Thank goodness you two weren’t caught by the gas!” Ladybug cheered after they’d all defeated the villain and shared a fist-bump. “This could have been a real disaster.”_

Marc stared at his notebook, thumping the eraser end of his pencil against the page. It wasn’t the lack of fight scene details that had him concerned (Nathaniel usually took care of blocking those out); it was the ending. Was it too obvious? Too on-the-nose? Or was it the dialogue that felt wrong? Would Ladybug say something else in a situation like that?

“What’s a good Ladybug line to end on?” he murmured to himself.

Ladybug’s cheerful voice came to him clearly. “Who’s ready for some cotton candy?”

No, that wouldn’t make any sense at all. Wait, had that been inside his head or outside of his head?

“Marc, hey, you’re here!”

Marc looked up to see Marinette, Nathaniel, and Alix strolling down the sidewalk toward him. “Oh, hi, guys.”

The girls sat beside him on the bench while Nathaniel stood.

“Aw, we’re not the last ones here,” Alix said. “Marinette’s right; cotton candy sounds good. And a corn dog.”

“Do you want me to go in and get you some while we wait?” Nathaniel asked her.

“Nah. The fair’s not going anywhere in the next five minutes.”

Marinette leaned closer to see what Marc was holding. “Doing some writing, Marc?”

He instinctively clutched his notebook tighter. “Just a comic story idea.”

Nathaniel’s eyes lit up. “Oh, can I see?”

Marc still felt really unsure about this story, but he handed Nathaniel the notebook. His friend read it over. “What?” Marc asked as he watched Nathaniel’s expression. “It’s not good, is it?”

“No, it’s good,” Nathaniel said. “But I don’t think we should do this one. It’d be too controversial.”

That got the girls’ attention. Alix snatched the notebook out of Nathaniel’s hand, and she and Marinette read it.

Marc waited for their opinion of the story, but instead of giving one, Alix said, “Why didn’t you change your name like Nathaniel did?”

“My name?”

“Well, Nathaniel made his superhero name Mightillustrator,” Alix clarified, “but you’re still Reverser.”

Nathaniel answered. “His name didn’t have the word ‘evil’ in it. ‘Reverser’ works fine as a superhero name.”

Alix tossed the notebook onto Marc’s lap. “Yeah, makes sense. I can’t really think of what you’d change it to, anyway. The only thing that sounds like ‘Reverser’ that I can think of is ‘Perverser’.”

Marc cringed. “That would be so much worse.”

Alix laughed. “Yeah.”

“You could be Rehearser,” Marinette suggested cheerfully. “Constantly practicing until you get it right.”

“Get what right?” Marc asked.

Marinette shrugged. “I don’t know. You’re the author.”

_But it was your idea_ , Marc thought.

Marinette wasn’t finished. “Ooh! Or Reimburser.” She imitated a movie trailer voice. “Paying back the villains for their crimes.”

They all laughed. “The name sounds like an accountant, but the description sounds like the Punisher. I think I’ll stick with Reverser for now. I already know how the powers work.”

Marinette suddenly stiffened, her attention glued to something coming the other way down the sidewalk. Marc turned his head to see Adrien approaching.

“Hi, guys!” Adrien called, waving. When he got to them, his gaze shifted around the group. “Oh, good. I’m not the last one here.”

Marc pushed aside the worry that Adrien _would_ be the last one to arrive. “Hi, Adrien. Thanks again for arranging that photographer for me.”

Adrien waved the thanks away. “I didn’t do much. It was Marinette’s great idea. I’m just glad it worked to get Mireille’s fans off your back.”

Alix snorted. “It more than got them off his back. They’re full-on shipping them now. ‘Oh, what a cute boy!’ ‘They look so great together!’ ‘They’re so perfect for each other!’ ”

“Why did it have to go so far the other direction?” Marc muttered. “Can’t they just leave us alone?”

Marinette punched him lightly on the shoulder. “You’d better get used to the attention, Marc. You’re going to be a famous author one day, after all.”

“That’s a little optimistic.”

“Of course it is! You have to be optimistic to pursue your dreams.”

A shutter click sound made Marc look to a group of people passing by on the street. A girl about their age lowered her phone and swiped her fingers over the screen while her friends chattered.

_I’m not that famous yet, am I?_ Marc wondered. Surely a few photos with a famous person didn’t make _him_ famous.

“Sorry about that,” Adrien said quietly to their group. “That happens sometimes while I’m out. I hope it doesn’t bother you.”

_Oh, right. That makes more sense._

“It’s fine!” Marinette insisted. “Who wouldn’t want to take photos of you?”

“Uh . . . ” said Adrien. “Right. Good.”

Marc smiled. He loved hanging out with Marinette. It was great not always feeling like the most uncertain one in a group. And she was so kind and supportive. He totally understood why Nathaniel had once had a crush on her.

He’d been staring at Marinette for a few seconds, so he didn’t notice anyone approaching from his other side until he heard a high voice say, “Hi, Marc.”

His head snapped around, and he jumped to his feet. “Mi-Mireille! Hi! Do you, uh, want to sit?”

Her dark eyebrows drew together. “Aren’t we going into the fair?”

“Oh. Right. I guess we can, now that everyone’s here.”

Mireille smiled sweetly at the others. “Hi. You all must be Marc’s friends. I’m Mireille.”

Alix laughed and got to her feet (Nathaniel somehow knowing to help her without her having to ask). “We all know who you are, Mireille.”

Adrien held his hand out to Mireille. “I don’t think we’ve officially met, though. I’m Adrien. Thanks for coming today.”

They shook hands. More cameras clicked in the passing groups of people.

“That reminds me,” Adrien said, taking out his phone. “I’m supposed to get some photos today. Does anyone mind?”

They all gathered in for a group selfie. Marc hadn’t participated in many of these, so he wasn’t sure what to do, and Alix ended up grabbing him and squeezing his head between hers and Marinette’s. At least she hadn’t squished him against Mireille, who was leaning politely in next to Adrien.

Following the main flow of people, they reached the fair entrance and paid their fees. It was a nice day for a fair. Sunny but not hot, with lots of fluffy, white clouds in the sky. As soon as they got in, Alix loaded up with food from the stalls, which Nathaniel and Marinette helped carry for her, both sneaking bites while Alix wasn’t looking. They made their way through the crowd from the food area to the games area, ignoring the stares and pictures from strangers. Alix and Adrien held up most of the conversation, with the rest of them chipping in here and there. Marinette was strangely quiet (for Marinette), but maybe that was because she ended up saying some really weird things when she tried to joke with Adrien.

Marc and Mireille hung in the back of the group, listening to the others but not saying much. Marc’s heart was beating frantically with nerves, and he was sure his palms would be sweaty if he weren’t wearing his gloves. He cut glances at Mireille as they walked, her belly too big not to notice. He barely knew this girl, and yet that was his child inside her. How on earth was he supposed to start any kind of conversation under those circumstances? Talking about it would be totally awkward, but _not_ talking about it seemed ridiculous.

As they passed a stall selling slushies, he noticed that she hadn’t gotten anything to eat or drink yet. “Are you thirsty?” he asked.

“No, I’m fine, thank you,” she said politely. She was so polite. As if she were on camera and he was her audience.

“Is there anything I can get for you?”

“No, thank you.”

Marc sighed. This outing was a nice idea, but he didn’t know what to do from here.

“Skee-ball!” shouted Alix. She grabbed Nathaniel by the arm (the food was all gone by now) and dragged him toward a row of skee-ball lanes.

“Yeah!” said Adrien. “Wanna play, Marinette?”

When all four of them started playing, the only thing for Marc to do was gesture toward the two remaining lanes and ask, “Want to play?”

Playing skee-ball beside Mireille was a lot less awkward than just standing beside her, since it gave him something to focus on. He got a few good shots in, then looked over to see her focused intently on the target, lining up her shot before rolling the ball down the lane.

He chuckled to himself and tried harder to get better shots. As the rest of the group grew loud with their cheering and playful taunting, Marc noticed Mireille bumping up her intensity. The line of tickets coming out of her machine, which his had gotten close to catching up with, suddenly surged forward as she continued to pour coins into the slot and fling balls at the targets.

Mireille, it seemed, had a competitive streak. Maybe her landslide win against Aurore hadn’t just happened on its own.

Grinning, Marc upped his game and commented, “You’re pretty good at this.”

She glanced toward him, and their eyes met for a second. “Well, it’s kinda fun.”

They didn’t talk any more, but as the intensity of their game increased, it was easy to laugh and cheer and groan along with the rest of his friends. When they finally ran out of coins, he turned toward the group to see Marinette and Alix high-fiving in victory.

Alix came over to Marc and Mireille, took one look at the strings of tickets in their machines, and shouted, “Yeah!” while holding up a hand for Mireille to high-five.

Mireille smiled politely and slapped Alix’s hand.

Marc tore off his string of tickets and handed them to Mireille. At her curious look, he said, “To the victor go the spoils.”

She politely took his tickets.

The boys waited while the girls all went to the prize booth and picked out stuffed animals.

“You want us to give you two a minute?” Adrien asked Marc.

“Why don’t we all take a minute?” Nathaniel suggested. He gave Marc a look that Marc didn’t know what to make of.

Adrien blinked at Nathaniel in surprise. “You want some time with Alix? Don’t tell me Kim was right.”

A blush crept over Nathaniel’s cheeks, but he didn’t show anything in his expression. “No comment.”

Adrien chuckled and walked over to meet Marinette.

Marc eyed Nathaniel. “That wasn’t about you and Alix, was it?”

Nathaniel shook his head ruefully. “Poor Marinette. Adrien’s so clueless.”

“She likes him?”

“We’re not supposed to say anything, on pain of Alya.”

“Did I make things uncomfortable for Marinette? I asked her and Adrien to come because I thought they were just friends like the rest of us.”

Nathaniel’s eyes darted around evasively. “I’m sure it’s fine. Marinette’s capable of making things uncomfortable all on her own. And I don’t think she would have agreed if she didn’t want to come.”

Alix met up with them, a huge grin on her face. She jerked a thumb behind her to where Adrien and Marinette were talking together. “Did you do that, Nath?”

He shrugged modestly.

“Nice work. Those two need all the help they can get.”

Marc watched Adrien and Marinette from a distance. Now her shyness around him made more sense. It wasn’t just because Adrien was popular, famous, nice, and talented, like Marc had assumed.

“Do you want us to stay?” Alix asked him. “It would probably look weird to Adrien if he notices, but we can if it’ll make it easier on you.”

Mireille was still at the prize stand, letting some fans take selfies with her.

“No,” Marc said reluctantly.

“You can do it,” Nathaniel said, and Alix gave Marc a fist-raise of solidarity before they both wandered away.

Marc approached Mireille and waited until her fans left. She looked at him, one arm clutched around a stuffed koala.

The skee-ball game had broken the ice, so he needed to not waste it. “Can we talk somewhere?”

She shifted the koala to hold it with both arms against the top of her belly. “All right.”

They walked together to an area with less congestion of people, where they found a little pocket of space on a bench beside a fountain and sat.

If he let the silence stretch on too long, things would get weird, so he forced himself to speak up. “How are you doing with everything?”

She smiled politely. “I’m just fine, Marc. You don’t need to worry.”

“Look, I—I know we’re not friends and we barely know each other, but I feel like you’re just putting me off. If you really don’t want me involved—if I . . . make you uncomfortable—I’ll get it, but if there’s any chance you could reconsider letting me be involved, I . . . I want to help. However I can. And I . . . ” His gaze strayed to her stomach. “I want to know the baby. If you’ll let me. If that’s okay.”

She didn’t answer at first, and when he looked at her face, her mouth had fallen open in surprise.

“Mireille? What is it?”

“You . . . You’re serious?”

Marc’s eyes widened. “Of course I’m serious!”

“Oh, I . . . ” She fidgeted with the koala. “Before, when you said you wanted to help, I thought you were just saying it because you felt like you had to.”

“Why would you think that? I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.”

“Well, you . . . you never seemed to want to talk to me about it, so I didn’t think you cared.”

He’d screwed it all up, then. That was obvious, but not surprising. “I was trying to give you space. I thought you wanted it that way.”

“I . . . I did, I guess. But it would have been nice if you’d tried more.”

_Aren’t those opposite things?_ Marc thought. Now he didn’t know what he was supposed to have done. “I’m trying now. I’m telling you I want to help, and I mean it.”

She kept fidgeting with the koala. “Thank you. I . . . I’d like that.”

Some of the weight lifted off his chest. They were making progress. “Good. I don’t know what to do, exactly, so please tell me anything I can do.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

He couldn’t think of what to say next, so silence stretched between them as he tried to figure out his next move.

Mireille was the one who spoke up next. “You really want to know the baby?”

Marc gulped past the tightness in his throat. “It . . . it’s my kid,” he said in a tiny, barely audible voice. “Of course I do.”

Mireille sighed. “Then there’s something I need to tell you about.”

That didn’t sound good. He looked into her eyes. “Is there something wrong with the baby?”

She shook her head. “No, everything’s fine with the baby. But . . . well . . . Now isn’t a good time for me to have a child. I’m just getting started on TV. I want to be a news anchor some day, and I don’t see how I can pursue that if I have to raise a baby right now.”

Marc stared into her brown eyes, trying to parse through the words to get to her meaning. Finally, he just asked, “What are you saying?”

“I’m planning to give the baby up for adoption once it’s born. There’s a big agency that’s organizing everything for all the women involved in this that don’t want to or can’t keep their babies. Lots of people from all over the world have already applied to adopt the kids.”

Her voice had turned into a rushing wind in Marc’s ears. Was he hearing her right? It shouldn’t really have been a surprise, he supposed, given her focus on her career. But the idea of _never_ seeing his child, of it getting whisked off to some far corner of the world before he had a chance—

“But, if you want it,” Mireille said, instantly snapping his focus back to her, “you can have it instead.”

“I . . . What?”

“I didn’t think you cared. That’s why I didn’t talk to you about it before. I’m sorry about that. But it’s your baby, too, and since I don’t want to keep it, it’s only fair that you have the chance to keep it if you want to.”

Marc was stunned silent by the idea. The thought had never entered his head. He’d assumed that Mireille would have the child and maybe he could convince her to let him visit it. But this . . .

“It’s a big decision,” she said. “We’ve still got several months before the baby’s born, but the adoption agency will want to know pretty soon. Try to decide as soon as you can and let me know.”

Marc swallowed hard. “Yeah,” he said, his throat suddenly dry. “I’ll think about it.”

“Do you want to go find the others?”

He nodded and got up, remembering after half a second to offer a hand to her.

They found the rest of the group and all met up again. Marinette was looking happy, so she must have been enjoying herself. Marc hoped things with Adrien would work out for her. She was too nice a person to get her heart broken, especially by the father of her child. Marc wondered why no one just told Adrien what was going on with her feelings, if so many people knew about, but he certainly wasn’t going to be the one to do it.

After walking around some more and going on a few rides, they went back to the games area. Alix suggested they try one of the shooting galleries, and while most of the group agreed, Adrien said, “Actually, why don’t Marc and I go buy some popcorn for everyone? I’m getting hungry.”

Marc didn’t argue as Adrien led him away to a picnic table close to the nearest popcorn stand. “We’re not buying popcorn?” Marc asked, sitting across from him.

“We will in a minute.” Adrien propped his elbows on the table and entwined his fingers. “I thought you might want to talk about something. You’ve been distracted ever since you and Mireille were alone. Did something happen?”

Adrien was as good a person to talk to as any, and he was the one who cared enough to make a point to ask. And Marc really wanted to talk about it. “Mireille said she plans to give the baby up for adoption.”

Adrien’s eyes went wide with horror, but his voice was carefully neutral when he asked, “How do you feel about that?”

Marc rubbed his fingers together nervously. “It makes me feel hollow inside. Is that weird?”

“Not at all. I’d probably feel the same. Did you tell her how you feel?”

“I didn’t really know how to at the time. And I’m not gonna try to make her keep a baby she doesn’t want. But . . . she did say that I could have it instead, if I wanted it.”

“You mean raise your baby yourself?”

“I . . . I guess so.”

Adrien smiled like this was good news. Maybe it was. “So you don’t have to lose it. True, it’d be hard to raise a baby without its mother around to help, but at least she’s giving you the option. Do you think you’ll take it?”

Marc’s mouth felt too dry. “I . . . think I want to. I just don’t know how I’d do it. My family doesn’t have a lot of money, and my parents are already unhappy with all this. If I told them I wanted to raise the baby myself, I’d . . . probably have to do it alone.”

Adrien frowned. “Without even your parents’ help? At fifteen? That’s . . . that’s a tough one.” He put on a thinking face, like this was his problem to personally solve.

Obviously, there wasn’t an easy answer to this, so Adrien wasn’t going to magically think of an answer in the next few minutes. “Should we get the popcorn?” Marc asked.

With Adrien still frowning in intense thought, the two of them got up and bought a couple bags of popcorn from the stall. On their way back through the crowd toward the others, Adrien cried out, “I’ve got it!”

“What?” Marc asked, but Adrien dragged him into a quiet place between stalls, where they could get a little space.

Adrien was grinning like a crazy person. “I’ve got it, Marc! I figured out how you can raise your baby!”

That got a few weird looks from passers-by, so Marc begged Adrien to keep it down. “You really don’t need to solve this,” Marc tried to assure him. “It’s my problem, not yours.”

Adrien ignored that statement. “The school’s already going to help out with childcare during the day, so you don’t need to worry about not being able to go to class. Your main issue is having enough money to get your own place and raise a child. I’ll bet we can find someone you can room with to split costs or someone with an extra room you could rent. So it’s mostly about money, right? Assuming you’re ready to put the work in of actually raising a baby by yourself.”

Marc was sure he didn’t have any real grasp of how much work that actually was. “I’m not ready,” he confessed. “But I’m willing.” If the alternative was never knowing his first (or possibly only) child, he’d find a way to make it work.

“So you just need a good job,” Adrien concluded. “One that you can do while you’re going to school and won’t take up more time than you can spare from your baby.”

“And you know of a job like that?” Marc asked skeptically.

“Sure! Father did say you were photogenic.”

Marc blinked at him. “What are you talking about?”

“You can be a model, like me!” Adrien said like it was the most obvious and best idea ever.

“W-what?”

“You’re tall and slim enough, you’re good-looking, and you’ve already impressed my father with your photos. You might need new hairstyle, but there are people for that.”

Marc’s mind was still reeling from what Adrien was suggesting. “Adrien, I—That’s nice of you to say, but I—I’m not—”

“I know you don’t like being in the spotlight, but would you do it for your baby?”

The reality and importance of what they were talking about came crashing down around Marc. Once he got his internal panic-flailing under control, he seriously considered it. “Would it work? Would it give me the money I need?”

“If you worked hard to do your best and learn the ropes, I think it could. I can even teach you how to pose and walk the runway. I think I can get my father to give you a chance.”

Marc swallowed hard. This was not the sort of thing he would have ever considered in a million years. Having people stare at him? Posing like he thought of himself as someone worth looking at? He imagined walking down a runway, the audience laughing at him. He imagined the teasing he’d get at school if people found out.

But it was still an amazing offer and probably the only thing that could give him the money he needed to take care of a baby.

“What do you say, Marc?” Adrien asked.

Marc sucked in a deep breath and nodded. “I’ll do it.”

When they got back to the group, Marc went to Mireille and told her, “I’ve decided, Mireille. I’ll do everything I can to help you and the baby through this. And when it’s—uh, that is, when our baby is born, I want to raise it. It’s okay if you don’t want to be involved after that. I’m willing to do whatever I have to to raise the baby myself.”

Marinette, Alix, and Nathaniel gasped. Adrien beamed with pleasure.

Mireille looked up at him in surprise. “Okay, Marc.” Finally, cracks appeared in her perfect, polite demeanor as her surprise shifted to a vulnerable mixture of happiness and shame. “I’m glad this baby will have at least one parent who’s able to love it like it deserves.”


	38. Chapter 38

Marinette sat in the strange ultrasound room, certain she was even more nervous than her mom. Which was weird, because Sabine was the one getting the ultrasound.

She didn’t know how to be a big sister. She babysat kids, sure, and they weren’t too difficult when they were little. (Never minding the fact that her babysitting abilities had managed to get kids akumatized at least three times now.) But what about when they got older? Was she supposed to give them advice or treat them like they could handle themself? Would her advice be any good? She’d probably be out of the house and living her own life by the time her younger sibling was a teenager. She didn’t want to end up ignoring them, but how much would they want her in their life at that point? Would she be able to be a good sister and a good mom at the same time?

Her mom’s soothing voice broke through her worries. “Marinette, I can see you worrying. This is your father’s and my responsibility. You have more than enough to deal with yourself.”

Tom came over from where he’d been standing next to the exam bed that Sabine was sitting on. “Your mother’s right, sweetie. I know becoming a big sister is a huge change for you, but you’ll do great if you just be yourself and do whatever comes natural. So don’t worry so much.”

Marinette took some deep breaths to calm herself down. “Thanks, Mom and Dad. I’ll do the best I can. I know my little sibling will be in good hands, because you two are great parents. I can personally vouch for that. So I shouldn’t be able to screw them up _too_ much.” It was a joke, and her parents laughed lightly at it.

Sabine’s doctor came in, and Marinette sat impatiently waiting until the big moment came. The doctor smiled at Sabine and Tom and said, “Your baby’s a girl.”

Her parents smiled and hugged each other (as best they could with Sabine reclined), and Tom made a joke about how that was the easier of the two options since they already knew how to raise a girl. But Marinette knew both of them would have been equally happy if it had been a boy.

Marinette was elated. She was going to have a little sister. A little brother would have been fun, too, but she thought she’d know how to relate to a little sister better. It would be easier, most likely, not only because they were both girls but because Alya also had little sisters, so she could get advice from her friend about it. Marinette could design cute clothes for her little sister and teach her how to sew if she wanted to learn. When she was older, they could talk about boys, and Marinette could reassure her sister that no matter how spazzy she thought she was, her big sister was spazzier (because Marinette couldn’t imagine anyone being _more_ spazzy than her when it came to boys). And she could encourage her little sister to tell her crush how she felt before he fell in love with some other girl.

_Oh, great. I made myself sad._ Marinette tried to push those thoughts aside and get back to sharing the joy with her parents. It really would be great to have a little sister. Marinette was pretty sure she was going to be awesome at it.

#

Today was a big day. Today, that little person who Adrien kept imagining before he fell asleep at night got a lot more defined. Today, he would find out whether he was having a son or a daughter.

Adrien was so caught up in anticipation when he came down for breakfast that he didn’t even mind that he had to eat alone.

Halfway through his meal, Nathalie came in and told him his schedule for the day. “Your bodyguard will drop you off at school at the usual time. He’ll pick you and Marinette up at ten-fifteen and take you to her ultrasound appointment, then bring you back when you’re finished. After school is out, you have fencing practice. I’ve reserved a room for you at the Gabriel building from five to six as you requested, for you to give modeling lessons to your friend Marc. From six to six-thirty you have a fitting for the show on Saturday. You’ll be picked up from there to come home and work on your homework before dinner. Also, in case you’d like to know, I’m having a boy.”

The long recitation had become almost background noise to Adrien, but when she stopped talking, his brain tried to tell him that she’d said something important. He set his fork on his plate, replaying everything he’d heard and actually paying attention to it this time. When he got to the important part, his face snapped toward her. “A boy?”

She nodded.

“I’m going to have a brother?”

Nathalie looked to the side uncomfortably. “Half-brother.”

Adrien jumped to his feet and gave her a hug. “That’s great news! Congratulations, Nathalie!”

She stiffened at first, then lightly put her arms around him. “Thank you, Adrien.”

He stepped back. “How did Father take it?”

“He was . . . pleased.” From her tone, that didn’t sound particularly true.

“Let me guess. He gave some meaningless acknowledgment of the information and went back to work.”

“He’s a very busy man.”

Adrien sighed. “I’m happy to have a brother, but I feel bad for him already. Especially without—” His jaw snapped shut against the words ‘ _Mom around_ ’. It would be horribly rude to Nathalie to say something like that. Even though he tried to hide what he’d been thinking, he could see by her faint, rueful smile that she’d understood him anyway. “I’m sure you’ll be a great mom, Nathalie.”

Her expression didn’t change, and she didn’t answer.

When he got to school, the first person Adrien saw was Marinette. He jumped out of the car and ran to where she was walking up the steps. “Hi, Marinette!”

She stumbled, and he had to catch her before she took a tumble down the stairs. _I should be more careful about startling her_ , he thought. Once she got her feet under her again, he kept one arm around her to help her up the rest of the way, just in case.

“G-good morning, Adrien,” she said, blushing. Probably embarrassed about tripping over a step. She really should know by now that none of them held her clumsiness against her. It was endearing, in a way. Though dangerous at the moment, so Adrien needed to be around more to catch her when she tripped.

“How are you?” He held her tighter around the waist until they reached the main doors, then let her go.

She still looked a little flustered. “Good. You?”

“I’m so excited about today’s appointment. It’s still on schedule, right?”

“Yeah! Still go. On to go. Good to . . . on . . . ” She gave up.

He laughed into his hand. “Sounds like you’re as anxious about it as I am. I doubt I’ll be able to pay any attention to class this morning.”

“Yeah . . . ”

Adrien leaned closer to tell her softly, “I’m going to have a brother. Nathalie told me this morning.” It wasn’t exactly a secret, but it was sort of a secret until his father made things public.

Marinette’s eyes lit up. “That’s great! I found out I’m getting a little sister!”

He couldn’t help but smile at the thought of another little Marinette running around. “I’m sure she’ll be adorable.”

“Who’s adorable?” Alya’s voice right behind him made him jerk straight in surprise. She and Nino were coming up the front steps of the school together.“I hope you’re not planning on spilling anything until the party.”

“Of course not,” Marinette told her. “We’re not finding out until later this morning, anyway. But our parents aren’t in our class, so we can share that news.”

Their class had agreed to wait until everyone found out and have a big gender-reveal party at school once everyone knew. They’d gotten some criticism about the plan from people in other classes, but they figured it was best to celebrate this as much as they could instead of focusing on the negative parts.

“You’ve got a point,” Alya said. “Then I guess I can tell you that Nora found out she’s having a girl.”

“Nice!” Marinette said. “My mom’s having a girl, too!”

The two girls cheered and shared a quick hug.

“Don’t tell anyone, because I think it’s not supposed to get out yet,” Adrien said, “but Nathalie told me she’s having a boy.”

“Sweet!” Nino held out his fist. “Little bros can be a pain, but they’re pretty great, too.”

Adrien gave him a fist-bump, then bowed and said in Chinese, “I will rely on you to guide me in the ways of older-brotherhood, master.”

The others clearly didn’t understand his words, but they seemed to get the gist of his meaning, since they all shared a laugh as they headed for the locker room.

A few hours later, Adrien waited in the ultrasound room with Marinette and her mom, giddy with anticipation.

“I’ve already got fifteen outfits designed,” Marinette confessed. She had changed and was lying on the exam bed, her fingers nervously bunching the gown over her belly. “Seven boys’ and six girls’.”

“What’ll you do with the ones you don’t need?” Adrien asked. Even though the doctor hadn’t come in yet, he was already in position beside her.

“Probably make them anyway and give them to friends.”

He grinned. “Good. It’d be a shame to see your designs go to waste.”

“But what if they’re no good?”

“Of course they’re good. They’re yours.”

She blushed from the compliment, and Adrien resisted the urge to reach out and feel the warmth in her cheek.

The doctor came in and asked the usual update questions but wasted no time in starting the ultrasound. When Marinette pulled up her gown to expose her belly, Adrien was surprised to see how much bigger it had gotten. Objectively, it still wasn’t huge (he’d seen enough pregnant women in his life to know how big they ended up getting), but it was noticeably bigger than before, and the fact that Marinette had a baby bump at all was still strange enough to make it seem very big.

An urge to reach over and press his palm against her belly hit him so hard, he had to fist his hand at his side to control it. Unlike that time before, there was nothing sexual about the desire. It wasn’t her skin he wanted to feel. The compulsion was for a deeper connection. He wanted to reach out and touch their baby.

“Is it—” he began. His throat tightened up, and he had to try again. “Is it far enough that I could feel the baby move yet?”

The doctor shook her head. “There’s probably a few more weeks until that yet. Marinette should be able to tell you when the baby’s movement can be felt externally.”

“Please do.”

He didn’t realize he’d whispered the words until she whispered back, “I will.”

Now it was his turn to blush.

“I can feel the baby move, though,” Marinette said. “Inside. It’s . . . it’s amazing.” There was a faint look of wonder on her face as she said it.

Adrien reached for her hand and squeezed it. “I bet it is.”

The doctor ran the ultrasound wand over Marinette’s belly, watching the monitor, telling them that everything still looked good. Finally, she said, “And here’s the news you’re really waiting for: It’s a boy.”

Adrien felt his heart tighten in his chest as Marinette’s hand tightened around his.

A boy. A son.

He looked into Marinette’s face and saw her smiling at him with tears in her eyes. But her smile slowly fell, and worry filled her gaze. “What’s wrong?”

Wrong? Why did she think something was . . . ?

Adrien realized there was no smile on his face. He felt his eyebrows pinching together. He felt the tightness in his jaw. What _was_ wrong?

Then he realized, and his vision blurred with tears.

The doctor frowned in concern and quickly cleaned the gel off of Marinette’s belly. “Why don’t I give you a minute?”

She left the room. A hand pressed against Adrien’s shoulder blade as Sabine came to stand beside him. “Adrien, dear? What’s wrong?”

Adrien’s blurred vision cleared a little as the tears escaped his eyes to trail down his cheeks.

“Oh, no,” whispered Marinette. She sounded horrified and hurt. “You were hoping for a girl.” She tried to pull her hand away, but Adrien squeezed it tighter.

“That’s not it,” he said, barely able to get the words out, his throat was so tight. “It’s just . . . I didn’t realize . . . how afraid I am.”

“Afraid?” Sabine prompted.

Adrien forced out the words, “My father.”

The hurt in Marinette’s face disappeared, replaced by sympathy and determination. The grip on his hand matched the one he had on hers.

“What if . . . ” His voice was a whisper. “What if I don’t know how to love him?” He hadn’t said enough of the words he should have. He needed to clarify that he meant his son, not his father.

Or maybe he didn’t.

Marinette sat up and used her free hand to pull Adrien into a firm hug. He released her hand to wrap his arms tightly around her and instantly felt her gripping him back just as tightly with both arms. Her mother wrapped her arms around him from the side, and he let the tears flow as mother and daughter surrounded him with love and support.

“You’re not your father, Adrien,” Marinette said. He was surprised to hear how steady and sure her voice was. It grounded him like a rock and helped him push his fear away. “I know you’ll be the best dad a boy could want.”

Adrien clung to her assurance, letting her words seep deep into his heart. Marinette wasn’t one to only see the best in people or be overly optimistic about their goodness. That trait had its down sides, but it also meant that if she said something good about someone, it was absolutely the truth. She believed in him, so he could believe in himself.

He pulled himself together, his grip on her gradually easing, and eventually straightened out of the hug. “Thank you, Marinette. That means a lot to me. And I don’t mean to be so hard on Father; I know he loves me in his own way. But . . . ”

“But it’s not the way you wish he loved you,” she guessed. “And it’s not how you want to love our son.”

_Our son._ Both of theirs. He wasn’t in this alone.

Unless he lost her, like his father had lost his mother.

No, he couldn’t think of that now.

A smile tugged at his lips. “Our son,” he repeated. “We have a son, Marinette. Can you believe it?” It was surreal and hilarious and bittersweet and wonderful.

Maybe she didn’t see the absurdity in it that he did, because all he saw in her smile and blush was happiness and shyness and . . . sadness?

Well, he wasn’t the only one having a baby with a person who wouldn’t have been his first choice. All the more reason he had to do his best and not let her down.


	39. Chapter 39

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic has hit the 100k-word mark, out of an originally planned 80k, and we still have a long way to go. Like I said, I'm terrible at estimating length.
> 
> This fic has also surpassed the view count on my previous most-viewed fic, a Snape/Hermione fic that's (so far) three times as long and has been around for several more years. (Although that doesn't count the views from the other archive that I originally posted it on.) I guess that's the benefit of such a lively, active fandom. :-)
> 
> I'm glad people are enjoying this fic, and I hope you continue to enjoy it all the way to the end. I'm really trying to get writing faster on this. I'd really, really like to get it finished and my other fic, Who and Whose, completed before any new episodes come out.

Gabriel couldn’t put it off any longer. His grandson would be here in twenty weeks or so. He might as well meet the people he’d be sharing the boy with before they thought him any more anti-social than they likely already did.

Marinette had not given Gabriel an answer to the offer he’d made her regarding the child. She and Adrien both still insisted that they would share custody of the boy and raise him together. How they planned to do that without actually being together, they hadn’t informed him. He strongly suspected they hadn’t fully considered or discussed the matter even between themselves. Gabriel wasn’t particularly worried about that, though. It was clear enough (to anyone who wasn’t a blind teen boy) that Marinette was in love with Adrien, or at least had strong feelings for him. And given the way Adrien defended her and insisted on sticking with her, he probably had feelings for her that he didn’t recognize himself. Gabriel was fairly certain they would come together sooner or later.

In fact, Gabriel hoped they would. The more he saw of Marinette, the more impressed he was with her. While there would have been advantages in an eventual marriage between his son and Kagami Tsurugi, and Marinette Dupain-Cheng brought no business connections at all to the potential match, Gabriel was not disappointed in the way things had played out. Now that he had seen more of her, Gabriel was convinced that Marinette was exactly the sort of wife his son needed. It might take Adrien a while to come to his senses and realize that, but with a baby binding the two of them together for life, he would have plenty of time to do so. Provided he didn’t lose her to another young man first.

Which was entirely possible, now that Gabriel thought of it. He would need to keep an eye out for any such developments.

Nathalie stepped into his atelier. “The Dupain-Chengs are here, sir”

Gabriel checked the clock in the corner of his workstation screen. They were three minutes late. Irritating, but at least it meant they wouldn’t have to wait around making conversation while the table was finished being set.

He closed his work and went into the foyer, where Adrien was chatting happily with Marinette and her parents. “Mr. Dupain, Mrs. Dupain-Cheng,” Gabriel said, approaching them, “thank you for accepting our invitation to dinner. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to find the time before now. My work keeps me very busy.” He offered the large man his hand to shake.

Tom Dupain ignored the hand and scooped Gabriel into a bear hug that lifted him off his feet. “We’re family now, Gabriel. Call us Tom and Sabine.”

With his arms locked at his sides by the bear hug, Gabriel fought the instinctive urge to defend himself by calling for Nooroo. That would be . . . bad. So he tolerated the hug until the man set him on his feet and released him. Gabriel glanced at his son, who shrugged apologetically. “Er, right,” Gabriel said in Tom’s direction. “Of course.” It was meaningless, but what else was there to say? He held out a hand to Sabine.

She shook it. “Thank you for having us over. It’s good to have a chance to get to know Adrien’s father.” While her smile was polite, there was a calculating look in her eye as if she were sizing him up.

“Please, this way.” Gabriel led them into the dining room. His staff had set the table perfectly, as expected.

“This looks amazing!” Tom enthused.

“And it smells delicious!” Marinette added.

“I’m glad you like it.” Gabriel gestured for his guests to take their seats as he went to his place at the head of the table. Adrien’s place was at the foot of the table with Marinette to his right and her parents near the middle. “My chef has assured me that all the dishes are safe for pregnant women as well as unlikely to trigger any nausea.”

“That’s thoughtful. Thank you,” Sabine said. “Speaking of which, isn’t Nathalie going to join us?”

Gabriel’s jaw clenched, and he shot an angry look across the table to his son. What nonsense had the boy told them that would lead them to expect his assistant to join a family meal? Adrien’s alarmed expression told him nothing, so Gabriel took a breath and said calmly, “Nathalie has already eaten, and she has work to do.”

“I see.” Sabine didn’t appear happy with that answer. Well, it was none of her business.

The food was already hot and laid out before them, but no one was eating yet, so Gabriel said, “Please, eat,” and picked up his own fork.

As they began their meal, his guests complimented the food, then Sabine said, “Adrien tells us you’re going to have another son. Congratulations.”

Gabriel nearly choked on a piece of broccoli but managed to swallow before anyone noticed. “Yes. Thank you. Though I’m not certain congratulations are exactly in order, given the circumstances.”

“Children are always a blessing, no matter the circumstances,” Tom said with the sunny cheerfulness of an eternal optimist.

“I imagine there are those who would disagree,” Gabriel replied.

“Some circumstances are much tougher than others,” Sabine said in a balanced tone. “But Tom and I are very grateful to be having another daughter, even if we didn’t plan on her.”

_You’re welcome_ , Gabriel thought sarcastically. In truth, it eased his conscience to see that some of the people he’d forced into breeding were happy it had happened—or at least looking on the bright side. He watched Adrien and Marinette quietly eating at the other end of the table. This was certainly not something he would have wished for his son, but if it did end up leading Adrien to an excellent match, then at least it wasn’t something either Adrien or Emilie would be likely to hold too much against him.

“What’s done is done,” Gabriel told Sabine. “I’m sure we’re all doing our best to move on from here.”

Just today, Gabriel had finalized arrangements with the most prestigious business school in France to ensure that, no matter how many applicants they got that year, there would be a place for his younger son when the time came. Provided his grades were up to snuff, which Gabriel had no doubt they would be.

Sabine beamed at her daughter. “I’m so proud of how Marinette is handling all of this.” Marinette’s head snapped up, a blush painting her cheeks. Sabine turned to Gabriel. “You must be very proud of Adrien. He’s such a responsible young man.”

Gabriel met Adrien’s eyes—so full of hope—and gave him a small smile. “I am.” Adrien’s answering smile was so much like Emilie’s, it physically hurt. Gabriel turned his attention to his meal.

The children were quiet through the rest of the meal, either eating silently or talking quietly between themselves, while Gabriel exchanged pleasantries and bland conversation with Tom and Sabine. He had wanted this dinner to be a way of acknowledging the connection they all now shared without letting the other family too much into their lives—and especially into his.

When the meal was over, Tom asked Gabriel if they might have a word, father to father. Though he dreaded what sort of bonding or, alternately, warning the other man might have for him, what could he say? They excused themselves and went into Gabriel’s atelier.

Tom circled the room, openly gawking at the décor. “Wow, this is where you work?”

“Most of the time, yes.” Gabriel gestured toward his workstation. “I can do nearly everything I need from there.”

Tom went over and admired it, but at least refrained from touching it. “So high-tech. The bakery business is mostly low-tech, so we don’t see a lot of this kind of thing.”

_You couldn’t afford it even if you wanted to_ , Gabriel didn’t say. “What did you want to talk about, Tom?”

The large man moved to admire the framed portraits of Adrien. “So many pictures of your son. You really must be very proud of him.”

“He is magnificent.”

Tom turn toward him and blinked in surprise, then laughed. “I feel the same way about Marinette. I would fill our home with photos like this, too, if I had any. Where do you even get pictures this big?”

“Is that what you wanted to talk about?”

“What? No. Well, not the photos.” Tom walked toward where Gabriel stood at the end of the room, then his eyes were drawn behind Gabriel to the portrait of Emilie. “That’s lovely. Is she Adrien’s mom?”

Gabriel found himself wanting to boast about her while simultaneously irritated at Tom for refusing to get to his point. “My wife. Yes.”

“She was beautiful.”

“She still is.”

Tom looked at him in confusion.

Blast it. This was exactly the sort of conversation Gabriel had pointedly avoided at dinner. “She is only missing, not dead. I will find her one day.”

Tom’s expression grew serious and solemn. “That’s why you reacted so strongly when Sabine mentioned your assistant. Despite the baby, you’re not giving up on your wife.”

Gabriel was honestly surprised at how well the other man had seen into him. Though there were depths to Gabriel Agreste that it would take a far closer look to see. He nodded. “I am fond of Nathalie, and I know that Adrien is fond of her, but there are things Adrien doesn’t know about what happened to his mother. It is easier for him to give up on her and hope for a replacement than to hope for his mother’s return. I will never give up on my wife.”

Tom met Gabriel’s eyes, placed a huge hand on his shoulder, and said, “I understand. I won’t ask about details you obviously don’t want to share, but if there’s any way to get your wife back, I hope you do.”

Gabriel felt tightness in his chest. Was he . . . actually _bonding_ with this man?

He cleared his throat. “Thank you.” Though if Tom knew _how_ Gabriel was working to save Emilie, he would surely not be so supportive. “What was it you wanted to discuss with me?”

Tom stepped back, his expression growing less serious. “We couldn’t talk about it in front of them, but I wanted to know what your feelings are about Marinette and Adrien.”

About their potential romance? About their friendship? About them having a baby together? “Could you be more specific?”

“Okay, it’s like this. I know I’m not supposed to say anything because this kind of thing is really embarrassing to teen girls, but the fact is—”

“She’s in love with him.”

Tom’s eyes widened in surprise. “Yes. How do you know?”

“It’s quite obvious from the way she looks at him.”

“Oh, yeah. That’s what I thought. Adrien doesn’t know, though?”

“I don’t believe so. Surely you remember how blind boys that age can be when it comes to girls.”

Tom chuckled. “Yeah. But Adrien actually told me that he doesn’t love Marinette and won’t end up marrying her because he loves another girl.”

Gabriel frowned. “I honestly don’t know who he might have meant. But he’s young, and young people fall in and out of love like they change their clothes. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”

“He sounded really certain.”

“I’m sure he is—for now. I believe he will come around in time.”

Tom smiled. “Then you hope those two will fall in love and get married, too?”

When he put it that way, it sounded so frivolous. “Marinette is an extremely talented, bright, and clever girl. I believe she would make Adrien an excellent wife. And obviously it would be better for their child to have a stable home life, since they already insist on raising him together. We will have to determine how to handle things logistically for the first few years, of course, but that’s a minor problem.”

Tom’s response was to smile in delight and wrap Gabriel in another bear hug. Since at least his feet didn’t leave the floor this time, Gabriel tolerated it until Tom released him.

“Good to know we’re on the same page, Gabe.”

“Gabriel.”

“Right. Gabriel. You’re sure Adrien will come around eventually?”

“He might make it more complicated than necessary, but I believe he will make the right decision when the time comes.”


	40. Chapter 40

The next Monday, Adrien strolled through the main doors of the school in a very good mood. This was the day of the party, when he’d get to share his news and hear all his friends’ news as well. The weather was sunny and cheerful, fitting for the occasion.

As he walked through the courtyard toward the locker room, he overheard someone saying his name and looked to find Rose, Juleka, Nathaniel, and Marc talking together at one of the benches. Casually, Adrien veered a little closer to him, trying to not make it too obvious that he was curious what they were saying about him.

“So you’re really going to model?” Rose asked. She was the easiest one to hear, since her voice was always so high and loud.

Adrien’s steps brought him closer.

“Yeah,” Marc said, his voice much quieter. “I probably won’t be any good at it, though.”

Rose was having none of that. “If Adrien’s teaching you, you’ll definitely do great!”

Adrien’s feet slowed to a stop. He was standing just outside the doorway to the locker room, so he’d either have to keep going and lose their conversation or go over and join it.

He took option three: lingering creepily nearby to eavesdrop.

“That’s so awesome.” Juleka’s words were mumbled and soft, but like the rest of her friends, Adrien had known her long enough now to pick them out.

“Juleka wants to model, too!” Rose told the boys.

Juleka blushed and ducked her head. “I mean, it’s fine.” She said more, but her words slid into low, mumbly gibberish. (Even her friends couldn’t _always_ tell what she was saying.)

Nathaniel said, “You should ask Adrien if you can join the lessons, Juleka. I’m sure you’d be a great model.”

That sounded like Adrien’s cue. He rushed over to them. “That’s a great idea, Juleka!” Either all those years of modeling had made his steps as smooth as a ninja’s or something of the cat stayed with him even when he wasn’t transformed, because all four of them jumped in surprise.

Rose waved at him. “Hi, Adrien! Marc was just telling us how you’re getting him into modeling so he can raise his baby! That’s so incredibly sweet!”

“Thanks, Rose. I really do think he’ll do great, once we can get him a bit less camera-shy.” _And crowd-shy, but one thing at a time._ “Juleka, they’re right, I think you’d be a great model too. You did really well at that photoshoot we did for Marinette’s website. I’d love to give you some lessons along with Marc.”

She let her hair fall over most of her face. “No, it’s okay,” she mumbled. “I’m not sure I’d be any good at it.”

“Juleka, it’s actually incredibly easy. It’s not hard to learn how to pose. And runway modeling is just walking and standing, things you literally already do every day.” Adrien dropped his bag on the ground and demonstrated, doing a standard runway walk for about ten paces. “See, just walk”—he did a basic pose—“stand”—he walked back to them—“and walk. Sometimes you do two poses at the end of the runway. It’s really not complicated at all.”

Juleka darted an uncertain look at the other three, then back to Adrien. “You’d really teach me?”

“Absolutely.”

“It’d be nice not to be the only one learning it,” Marc said.

Juleka smiled shyly. “Okay. Thanks.”

“Great!” Adrien picked up his bag. “Marc, I’ll let you give her the details. I’m looking forward to seeing you at our next practice, Juleka!” He waved good-bye to the group and headed into the locker room.

#

Marinette sighed with bliss. What a wonderful start to the day. “Did you see, Alya?”

“Yep,” said her best friend. “A wild model outside of his natural habitat. Truly a rare sight.”

“He’s so graceful,” Marinette cooed.

She and Alya had seen Adrien standing around by himself as soon as they’d entered the courtyard. Marinette had been trying to work up the nerve to go talk to him when he’d joined the others. That had made things a lot less intimidating, so they’d started going over to join the group when Adrien had broken into a spontaneous catwalk, freezing Marinette dead in her tracks.

As soon as Adrien was out of sight, Marinette dragged Alya over to the group. “Hey, guys! What was all that about?”

They told her and Alya about the modeling lessons.

“That’s wonderful!” Marinette squealed, thrilled for her friend. She felt so bad about how she’d misread Juleka that time, enough to get Juleka akumatized again, that she made sure to be as supportive as she possibly could about Juleka’s modeling aspirations now.

“Yeah, girl,” Alya said. “You’re gonna rock it.”

Juleka smiled and looked a little more confident. “Thanks, guys.”

“Marc, how are things going with Mireille?” Marinette asked. She hadn’t talked to Marc since their group outing a couple weeks ago.

“Pretty good,” he said, fidgeting with his gloves. “We can talk sort of normally now, and she lets me help with some stuff. She let me go to her last appointment with her.”

“So you know your baby’s gender?” Rose asked.

“Yeah. It’s—”

Marinette held up a hand. “Stop! Don’t tell us!”

Marc looked at her in confusion. “Why not?”

“Our class is having a gender reveal party during fourth period. Why don’t you come and tell us then?”

Nathaniel nodded. “Yeah, Marc. You should come. You have more friends in our class than yours, anyway.”

“Okay,” Marc said. “I’ll see if my teacher will let me.”

#

When Adrien came back from lunch, he found the classroom fully decked out in balloons and streamers, with Miss Bustier’s desk loaded up with cupcakes and drinks. The non-expecting members of their class must have been really busy during lunch. Adrien grinned and slid into his seat, watching as Rose and Juleka finished hanging a few more streamers on the windows.

Alya and Nino came in together, holding hands, and both of them slid onto the bench behind Adrien, Nino taking Marinette’s seat. A minute later, Marinette entered, saw that Nino was in her seat, and immediately looked totally at a loss about what to do.

Adrien patted the seat beside him. “You can sit here, Marinette.”

She grinned, blushing, and took the seat.

“Nervous about telling everyone?” he guessed.

She shook her head.

Then why did she seem nervous? It wasn’t . . . sitting next to him, was it? His smile drooped. Would she ever be fully comfortable around him? Listening to Nino and Alya chatting behind them only highlighted the silence between Adrien and Marinette.

A few minutes passed, and the rest of the class filed into the room, along with Marc and Luka. It wasn’t surprising to see Marc, but why was Luka here? Unless . . .

“Haven’t you told him?” Adrien asked Marinette softly.

She shook her head.

That was odd. But then, Adrien hadn’t been able to talk to Ladybug about it, either. Things had been so chaotic with the villains, there hadn’t been any convenient time to get her alone for a moment and check in on the baby situation. With Luka being in a different class and both of them busy with their own schedules, maybe Marinette hadn’t had a chance to talk to Luka about it yet.

Adrien half-stood up.

“Where are you going?” Marinette whispered.

“You’d probably rather sit next to Luka,” he whispered back. “It’s fine. I can find somewhere else.”

“No!” She grabbed his wrist. “We—we’re in this together, aren’t we?”

Adrien sat back down. “We are. Thanks.” It was nice of her to let him be involved, even though he made her uncomfortable sometimes. Knowing that she had Luka, who didn’t make her uncomfortable and would be at least as attentive as Adrien could be, made Adrien all the more appreciative of her indulging him like this. “But it really is okay, if you’d rather sit with him.”

“Why would I—?”

“Hi, Marinette.” Luka was standing in front of their desk. “Hi, Adrien. It’s cool of your class to let me come to your party. I’m really curious to hear everyone’s news, and I’m glad to be able to support my friends.”

Marinette blushed at him. “Th-thanks for coming, Luka.”

She still had her hand around Adrien’s wrist. Adrien gently removed it, ignoring how she yanked it back in surprise, and smiled at Luka. “We appreciate it, Luka. It’s always good to see you.”

Luka looked between the two of them with an expression Adrien couldn’t interpret. It was a very mild expression, but there was something not entirely happy about it.

_I should really move_ , Adrien thought, putting his hands on the desk to stand again. Maybe Luka and Marinette weren’t an official couple yet, but it was clear they were headed that direction.

Before Adrien could actually get up, Luka moved past them and squeezed onto the bench beside Juleka and Rose.

Only when Adrien noticed Marinette’s body getting stiff did he realize she’d relaxed a bit when Luka was around.

_Am I getting in the way?_ Adrien wondered.

Now that everyone was here and had found a seat, Rose skipped to the front of the room. “Welcome the party, everyone!”

Most of the class cheered. From her usual spot in the front row, Chloe tapped away on her phone, paying no attention to the party at all.

“Instead of everyone just saying the gender of their baby,” Rose said, “we’re gonna make it a little fun. Everyone who’s having a baby, come up and take a cupcake—blue frosting for a boy and pink frosting for a girl.” Rose skipped back to her seat as they waited for the first reveal.

Kim jumped up and ran down to the front of the room. “I want a cupcake!” He chose a pink one and immediately took a bite.

Adrien laughed along with everyone else as Kim did some kind of end zone dance. It was such a relief to shove all their panic, fear, and worry about being teen parents aside for a little while and make a celebration of it. ‘Children are always a blessing,’ Marinette’s dad had said. Adrien loved how hard everyone in his class was working to see it that way.

Well, almost everyone. Chloe scowled at Kim’s dance.

When Kim went back to his seat, Alya and Nino went forward, still holding hands, and each took a pink cupcake.

“We’re having a girl!” Nino shouted.

A cheer went up, and Adrien tried to match Marinette in cheering the loudest.

Alya kissed Nino, and the two of them went back to their seat.

Adrien smiled at Marinette. “Our turn?”

She smiled shyly and nodded.

They quietly went to the front and each took a blue cupcake.

Most of their friends cheered, a few catcalling rather inappropriately. Marinette blushed, and Adrien could feel his own cheeks heating. But, with the exception of Chloe, their friends did look genuinely happy for them. Even Luka was clapping and beaming with joy at Marinette. Adrien knew that with the way Marinette and Luka felt about each other, he’d probably end up sharing his son with the other boy. He wasn’t bothered by that, though. Luka was a terrific guy. Adrien couldn’t think of anyone he’d rather be in that position with. He gave Luka a smile and nod, and Luka gave him a thumbs up.

Back at their seats, Adrien started in on his cupcake. “Are these from your parents’ bakery?” he asked Marinette.

She wasn’t eating hers yet, but she was peeling the wrapping off with a deliberateness that was almost obsessive-compulsive. “Yeah. My dad was excited to donate them for the party.”

“They’re delicious.”

Adrien watched happily as Alix and Nathaniel came up and both double-fisted blue cupcakes. There were laughs and cheers from the class and a blush from Nathaniel. Alix tried to look irritated but couldn’t hide a smile.

When they got back to their seat, Alix pushed Marc toward the front. He went up, quietly took a pink cupcake, and hurried back to his seat among a chorus of cheers and encouragement.

There was a pause as everyone looked around to see if anyone was left, and all eyes gradually shifted to Chloe.

She didn’t move or even acknowledge the attention she was getting.

Adrien sighed and shared a tired look with Marinette.

Rose didn’t let the pregnant silence ( _H_ _eh._ ) go on long, though. She stood in her seat and said, “You’re last, Miss Bustier! Take a cupcake!”

Standing behind her desk, Miss Bustier looked surprised to see everyone’s attention suddenly shift to her. She’d probably thought she was only overseeing the party, not participating. But she recovered immediately and reached to take a blue cupcake.

Amid the cheers and congratulations, Adrien heard Rose gasp. Others must have, too, because the noise quieted enough for everyone to clearly hear Rose say, “Miss Bustier, is that a ring on your finger?”

Miss Bustier froze with her left hand still extended and grasping the cupcake. A small diamond ring was very definitely occupying her ring finger.

More gasps.

Alya cried out, “Are you engaged?”

Miss Bustier took a step back, trying to play it off as nothing. “I am, yes.”

From somewhere behind him, Adrien heard squeals and garbled demands for information.

“Okay, okay!” Miss Bustier said, raising her hands to get attention. “I’ll tell you, but quiet down.”

“Can we get our cupcakes first?” Ivan said.

Miss Bustier took a seat at her desk, and everyone who hadn’t already grabbed a cupcake hurried up to get one. Adrien watched Chloe closely enough to see that she took one without even looking at the tray. She was obviously still in denial, but did that mean she didn’t know the gender? Had she not even seen a doctor? Adrien grew even more concerned for his proud, headstrong friend.

Once everyone had resettled and were enjoying their cupcakes, Miss Bustier began. “Yes, I’m engaged. And yes, in case you’re wondering, he is the father of my baby.”

Rose cooed softly, and there were other soft, feminine hums of approval. Several of the girls leaned in, resting their chins in their hands.

Miss Bustier sighed as if resigned to not getting away from this without a thorough recounting. “His name’s Victor. He’s the owner of a bookshop that I’ve frequented for the past three years. Over that time, we’ve developed a . . . friendly acquaintance.”

Mylène blurted out, “You already liked him?” She sounded so sure of it, Adrien figured he must have missed something in Miss Bustier’s expression or tone that was clear to girls.

Amazingly, Miss Bustier’s cheeks turned a bit pink. “You could say that. And he was interested in me as well—or so I later learned—but he’s . . . not a particularly aggressive man. It took him quite a long time to finally ask me out. The day of Fairy Grandmother’s attack, we were on our first date.”

Adrien cringed, and he wasn’t the only one.

“He was so ashamed and mortified by what had happened, he barely spoke to me after that, even when I tried to act as if everything was normal. But when I told him that I’m pregnant, he pushed aside all of his own discomfort in order to support me. We’ve spent a lot of time together since then.”

“And you fell in love!” Rose said.

Miss Bustier smiled. “Yes. It happened much faster than it would have otherwise, I’m sure, but I do think we would have gotten there in time.”

“Sounds like the guy just needed a good push to get his act together,” Alya said. “Some guys are like that.” Something in her tone made Adrien turn around to look at her, only to find her staring directly at him with a raised eyebrow. Surely she didn’t mean _him_? Adrien had pursued the girl he loved with what turned out to be _too much_ intensity. No, Alya couldn’t mean him. She was probably only looking at him because he’d drawn her eye by turning around.

Miss Bustier went on with her story, or what was left of it. “Victor asked me to marry him last week. We’re planning to do it soon, since we’d like to have everything set up and ready to focus on the baby by the time our little one comes.”

Rose led the group in another round of cheering and applause. Adrien was thrilled for his teacher’s happiness and so glad that his failure as Cat Noir had resulted in Miss Bustier finding the love of her life. Or, if not finding, at least moving things forward with him so that they didn’t waste three _more_ years to hesitation.

Now that all the news was shared, people got up and started mingling and eating the other snacks on offer.While Marinette talked excitedly with Alya and Nino about their baby news, Adrien found himself talking with Luka.

“Congratulations on your son,” Luka told him. “I’m really happy for you and Marinette.”

“I’m surprised she hadn’t told you already,” Adrien confessed.

“We haven’t had a chance to hang out much lately,” Luka said. “I’ve been, uh . . . busy with some things.”

Internally, Adrien smirked. _Things like saving Paris?_ He really wanted to make some kind of joking reference to it, but a joke was not worth his secret identity.

Well, okay, maybe a little one. “I know what you mean. It can be so hard to find _time_. When you’ve got a full schedule, even a spare _second_ can be hard to come by.”

Luka’s eyes narrowed slightly.

_Crap_. Exactly how perceptive was he? Adrien could see Luka’s Miraculous in his peripheral vision, since Luka was holding a cup of punch near his chest. _Don’t look at it. Don’t look at it._ Why was it suddenly so hard not to look at it?

“Um, excuse me. I need to talk to Chloe for a sec.” Adrien darted away. He didn’t check behind him to see if Luka was still watching but hurried over to where Chloe stood with Sabrina. “Hey, ladies, what’s up?”

The annoyed expression on Chloe’s face was gone the instant she saw him. “Adrien! You came to talk to me!”

“Yeah, Chloe, of course. I’m”—he lowered his voice—“I’m kinda worried about you.”

The pleasure dripped right off her face. “Why?”

He glanced to the side to check that no one was near enough to listen easily, then stepped closer to her and glanced at Sabrina before giving Chloe a serious look. “Have you not even seen a doctor?”

From the look on her face, it was clear that Chloe wanted to burst out with a loud denial of her situation, as usual, but she kept her tone quiet so as to not draw attention. “Why should I?” she hissed.

“You’ve already told me, Chloe,” he reminded her. “You don’t need to pretend. But you do need to see a doctor.”

Chloe’s anger and indignation fell away, leaving her vulnerable.

“He’s right, Chloe,” Sabrina whispered softly. “I wish you would—”

“How can I?” she snapped. “I can’t do anything like that without my parents finding out.”

“They’ll find out soon anyway,” Adrien said.

“No, they won’t!” she insisted. “I’m doing just fine!”

Adrien sighed and turned to leave. Chloe still wasn’t ready to face reality. Too bad reality wasn’t something that could be ignored forever. Before he walked away, Adrien told her, “I’ll be here when you need me, Chloe.”


	41. Chapter 41

This villain was fast. Viperion sprinted across rooftops with his team, the five of them doing their best to distract or disrupt Steelshot’s focus from his goal. It wasn’t doing any good. Far up ahead, Carapace was doing his best to keep ahead of the villain, but Steelshot kept firing old-fashioned bullets at him, so Carapace had to keep one eye out behind him to block the bullets with his shield even as Steelshot closed the distance between them. Fortunately, the bullets disappeared in a puff of metal powder when they hit Carapace’s shield rather than ricocheting into some innocent citizen.

“Give me your Miraculous, little turtle!” Steelshot called out in a sing-song voice. “Or I’ll catch you and make some turtle soup!”

He’d nearly gotten his hands on Carapace three times already.

“Keep running, Carapace,” shouted Ladybug. They were heading for the stadium, where they’d be able to surround Steelshot and fight him without worrying about stray bullets flying into a crowd. They ran in a tight formation, the boys all clumped around Ladybug in case danger appeared unexpectedly. “Anything yet, Viperion?” Ladybug asked.

It had been four minutes already since he’d activated his Second Chance. They only had one minute left to use it—and only one minute until he detransformed if he didn’t. “Nothing yet.”

“Hawk Moth might have told Steelshot to stall and wait out your power before getting into a real fight,” she guessed. That was the problem with Second Chance—you had to know the right time to activate it, and if you weren’t able to get things done in the next five minutes, it was basically useless. “If nothing happens before your time’s up, use it anyway. We can’t let Hawk Moth think that tactic’s gonna work.”

He nodded and kept running. They reached the stadium with thirty seconds left on his clock. Carapace landed in the center of the field and activated his Shelter around himself before Steelshot could reach him. The rest of the team dropped onto the field a second later and ran at him, planning to take Steelshot out while he was trying to break through the shield.

Except Steelshot didn’t do that. He fired shots at the shield while they approached, but when Pegasus leapt at him from behind, Steelshot instantly pivoted, jumped over Pegasus, and snatched his Miraculous right off his face.

Max fell with a yelp onto the grass.

Ladybug, Cat Noir, and Carapace shouted in surprise.

“Second Chance!”

Viperion was back on the rooftop on the other side of the Seine.

Ladybug gave him a nod and turned away. “All right, let’s—”

“Stop!” Viperion said.

She turned back to him in surprise. “What happened?”

“Steelshot chased Carapace for almost five minutes, trying to get his Miraculous, but when Carapace activated his Shelter, Steelshot changed targets to Pegasus without warning and took his Miraculous.”

Pegasus staggered a step back. It was always distressing for them to learn when a Miraculous had been taken. Viperion understood that well enough. It was always distressing for him to watch.

“He switched targets?” asked Cat Noir. “That’s new.”

“I hate an unpredictable villain,” Carapace grumbled.

Ladybug asked, “Any guess where we went wrong?”

Viperion considered it. “He’s really fast, so we shouldn’t let him make it a chase. We need to ambush him.”

“Got it.” Ladybug opened her yo-yo and used it as a telescope to spy on Steelshot. The villain was making some kind of speech on top of a church steeple. “I’d guess the akuma’s in that rifle of his. If he went after Carapace first the first time, let’s hope he does it again. Viperion, if he goes after someone else first this time, reset time and let us know so we can adjust the plan. Cat Noir, you drop in and distract him. Try to keep him right where he is, so don’t get too close. On the street in front of the church should be good. Pegasus, be ready to open a portal and grab his rifle as soon as Cat Noir has his attention. Ready? Go!”

#

“Hawk Moth keeps changing tactics,” Ladybug said once the fight was over.

The other guys had already taken off, leaving her and Cat Noir alone on a secluded rooftop. “Good thing we’ve got a great team and your brilliant mind, Milady.”

“No need to flatter me, Kitty. You guys all have great minds.”

“Even King Monkey?”

She laughed lightly. “Well, he’s got other good qualities.”

“Ladybug, now that we have a second, can I ask how you’re doing? With the baby stuff, I mean.”

She leaned her back against a chimney and put a hand to her belly. “Well enough, I guess. Thanks for your concern, Cat Noir.”

He leaned his shoulder on the chimney next to her. “Do you know if it’s a boy or girl?”

She bit her lip. “I do. But . . . I don’t think we should be sharing details like that. I think that counts as personal information we need to hide to protect our identities.”

“Really? It’s a fifty-fifty guess either way. It’s hardly going to narrow the field much.”

He was probably right. Maybe her reticence had nothing to do with their identities. Maybe it had to do with her uncertainty about letting him closer to this part of her life. But she knew there was no reason to be uncertain. He’d already told her that her pregnancy didn’t change anything. What was she afraid of? “All right. I’m . . . having a boy.”

He grinned. “Me, too! Well, I mean ma—my other lady partner is having a boy.”

Ladybug smiled. “I know what you mean. Are you happy about that?”

His expression grew serious. “To be honest, I wasn’t sure at first. But now I am. I’m really excited.” The grin came back. “Maybe our sons could be on the same baseball team or something. Or maybe . . . ” His green eyes filled with heat and meaning, but then he backed away. “Uh, never mind.”

Ladybug could have sworn she heard the words he didn’t speak.

_. . . they could be brothers._

The thought warmed something inside her. Cat Noir still loved her. He still wanted to tell her he loved her. But he held back, since that was what she wanted.

Though honestly, it was nice to know.

#

Three weeks after the class party, Chloe came to school wearing some of the maternity clothes Sabrina had picked up for her, rather than another baggy sweater. Adrien was relieved to see that she had finally decided to face reality, but he was troubled by the sudden change in her demeanor.

It was only a minute before the start of class, so everyone else was already in their seats. Instead of strutting in with her usual confidence, loudly talking to Sabrina, Chloe crept silently to her seat with her head low and shoulders slumped.

Their classmates’ reactions didn’t help matters.

“Hey, Chloe,” said Alya. “Nice outfit. It really flatters your baby bump.” Adrien knew—or at least hoped—that Alya meant well. That she really was happy to see Chloe admitting to what everyone in class already knew. It was probably meant as a ‘welcome to the club’ sort of comment.

But that wasn’t how Chloe took it. “What would you know about flattering fashion?” she snapped at Alya. “Where did you even get that shirt?”

“The same place you got yours,” Alya pointed out.

Marinette waved her hands in front of her. “Whoa, Chloe, ease up. There’s no need to get defensive. It’s just good to see you being honest with yourself.”

“Yeah,” Alix scoffed. “What were you gonna do? Ignore your pregnancy until the baby popped out in the middle of class? Did you really expect _us_ to ignore it, too?”

_N_ _ot helping, Alix_ , Adrien thought with a wince.

Chloe looked about ready to explode with rage.

Miss Bustier’s gentle voice broke in. “Now, everyone, it’s not fair to put Chloe on the spot. Chloe, do you want to tell us anything?”

“There’s nothing to tell,” Chloe said through gritted teeth. “You all know what happened.”

Rose asked, “Won’t you at least tell us who the boy was?”

Chloe turned and shot a burning glare at Rose, who yelped and shrunk back into her seat.

“If Chloe doesn’t want to share right now, she doesn’t have to,” Miss Bustier said. “Now, it’s time to start class.”

During their first break, Adrien saw Chloe and Sabrina go into the locker room. Before they passed through the doors, Sabrina cast him a beseeching glance, so Adrien broke away from his other friends and followed.

He found Chloe sitting on one of the benches, Sabrina standing at her side.

Adrien quietly sat beside Chloe. “What happened?”

Tears started pouring from her eyes. “You were right. I couldn’t keep hiding it. I tried, but Mom noticed. She and Daddy demanded to know what happened. I—I had to tell them.”

Adrien wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and she sagged against him. “So, you told them the truth?”

Chloe stiffened.

“Chloe . . . ” Adrien prodded. “You told them the truth, right?”

She turned her face away slowly, like a dog that knows it’s in trouble. “I . . . I may have told them a _version_ of the truth.”

Adrien glanced at Sabrina, who gave him a helpless head shake. “A version of the truth that’s actually more of a lie?” he asked Chloe.

“I told them it was because of Fairy Grandmother, and that Sabrina and I tried our best to hide but I got caught with a guy anyway.”

Adrien had a strong suspicion about which part of the truth she decided to leave out. “What guy did you tell them you got caught with?”

She mumbled something.

“Could you say that louder, Chloe?”

“I told them it was . . . XY.”

_Oh, sheesh._ “XY? As in the famous singer?”

Chloe nodded against his chest.

Adrien sighed. “Was he even staying in the hotel at the time?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why did you say that? What happens when your parents try to contact him?”

She pulled her face out of his shirt to look at him. “They won’t! I told them the reason I didn’t tell them before was because I don’t want anyone to think I’m using this baby to entrap XY or get famous through him. I’m already famous just for being myself, so I don’t need to cling onto some guy like that.”

“And your parents believed you?”

“Of course they did. They were proud of me for standing on my own and handling this myself.”

But she _wasn’t_ handling it herself. Not very well, at least. And it was clear from the way she was acting this morning that she wasn’t as confident and accepting of her pregnancy as she wanted her parents to think. “If they’re only accepting this situation because they think your baby’s father is someone famous, they’re going to want you to make that information public once it gets out that you’re pregnant. And then XY will find out. And I’m pretty sure he and his manager will have something to say about it.”

“That . . . that won’t happen.”

“People get sued for slander, Chloe.”

Her face paled. “It . . . it’s not . . . ”

“Mitigating circumstances aside, it probably wouldn’t be good for his image, even if it were true. Lying about people in a way that negatively affects them is definitely something people get sued over. You need to tell your parents the truth before this gets out of control.”

“I _can’t_ tell them the truth. If they knew I got pregnant by some—some— _nobody_ , I don’t know what they’d do.”

“You haven’t even tried to talk to Pierre yet, have you?”

“Why would I?”

Why was this girl so stubborn? “Because it’s his baby, too. Because he genuinely wants to help.”

“I don’t need—”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. You don’t need help from a nobody. Look, Chloe, I’m your friend, and I’m not going to try to force you to talk to him by refusing to help you unless you do.” She jerked at the implied threat. “Because I know that even if I did, you still wouldn’t talk to him, and then you’d be without any help besides Sabrina. But I really wish you’d think seriously about talking to him.”

Chloe bit her lip like she was considering it but didn’t even promise to think about it.

“Have your parents at least set you up with a doctor?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said like the idea still embarrassed her. “I’ve got an appointment tomorrow.”

Adrien released a breath, feeling his body relax. “Good.”

Chloe sat back, and his arm around her shoulders fell. “Would you go with me, Adrien?”

That wasn’t a request he’d expected. “Me? Why?”

“Mom and Daddy think I’m capable of handling it on my own, and I don’t want to disappoint them. Sabrina said she’d go with me, but . . . it would be nice to have you there, too.”

_I’m sure Pierre would love to be there_ , Adrien thought, but there was no point pushing that further right now. “All right, Chloe. I’d be happy to.”

#

“Is it going to hurt?” Chloe asked. She was sitting on the exam bed in pants and a hospital gown, her hands clasped nervously in her lap.

“Don’t worry, Chloe. It won’t hurt,” said Adrien. He was pretty confident about that. Marinette hadn’t actually said it didn’t hurt, and she’d never acted like it did.

Chloe relaxed a little, but only a little.

Adrien had waited in the hall while the doctor had examined Chloe in another room. Maybe that part had hurt? Now they were in the ultrasound room, and both Chloe and Sabrina were visibly much more anxious than Adrien. Which made sense. Although he was concerned for Chloe, it wasn’t _his_ baby this time, or even his best friend’s baby.

While Sabrina talked to Chloe to try to keep her mind off her worries, Adrien sent a text to Pierre, updating him on what was happening. Adrien was trying to walk the line between respecting Chloe’s privacy and keeping Pierre apprised of what was going on with his child, which Adrien figured he had at least some right to know.

The doctor came in and went straight to the ultrasound machine, having already gotten the pleasantries out of the way during the earlier exam. Chloe’s doctor was an older lady with grey hair. She looked like someone who had a lot of experience and knew what she was doing.

“Just lie back on the bed, Chloe, and pull the gown up over your belly,” instructed the doctor.

Adrien got up from his chair and stood beside Chloe. It was so strange for him to be the one who knew what he was doing in this situation. He took her hand, holding it just like he usually held Marinette’s, and gave her a reassuring smile. Sabrina stood behind him, both of them right where Chloe could see them. The worry on Chloe’s face faded some.

As the doctor applied gel to the ultrasound wand, Chloe pulled up her gown with her free hand.

Adrien was not surprised to find that, while seeing his childhood friend’s big, round belly was extremely strange, it didn’t produce the emotions in him that seeing Marinette’s big, round belly did.

“This may be cold,” the doctor said, then pressed the wand to Chloe’s belly.

Chloe twitched at the contact, then bit her lip and watched the monitor.

They all watched the monitor. After a few seconds of moving the wand around, the doctor said, “There’s the baby’s head. And that’s an arm.”

As the doctor continued describing what they were seeing on the monitor, Adrien looked to Chloe’s face to find her eyes wide and her mouth open, as if she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing.

The thump-thump of the baby’s heartbeat came through the speakers, and tears pooled in Chloe’s eyes.

“Congratulations,” the doctor said with a smile. “It’s a girl.”

The tears in Chloe’s eyes fell down her face. Adrien squeezed her hand. With his left hand, he pulled his phone from his pocket to snap a photo of the image of the baby on the monitor, then lowered his phone to his side to text it to Pierre.

The scan went on for several minutes, none of them speaking, the room filled with the hum of the machine and the beat of the baby’s heart as the wand moved around Chloe’s belly. But while Chloe’s gaze was locked on the monitor, Adrien noticed that the doctor’s face was gradually shifting into a frown.

“Hmm,” the doctor finally said. “The baby’s not as big as I’d expect. Your pregnancy is from the Fairy Grandmother attack, correct?”

“Yes,” Chloe said with a flash of indignation. Then she suddenly looked worried. “What do you mean she’s too small?”

“There could be some developmental issues. You said you haven’t been doing anything differently than you normally do?”

Chloe’s breathing sped up. “There was nothing to change. I already eat healthy, and I’m not around smokers or anything.”

“Stress can also have an effect on the baby’s development.”

Chloe grimaced.

The doctor asked Adrien carefully, “Are you the father?”

“No!” he blurted, blushing at the suggestion. Though obviously the doctor might think that. He shared a glance with Sabrina and said, “We’re both just here as friends to support her. But I . . . I am going through this with another one of my friends.”

The doctor nodded, her mouth tight. “And how do your parents feel about this?” she asked Chloe.

“What—what does that matter?” Chloe evaded.

“This situation is extremely stressful for a lot of people. For a girl your age, without the support of your parents or the baby’s father, you must be under even more stress than many women. All that stress is not beneficial for the baby’s development.”

Chloe swallowed hard. “You mean, I—I’m hurting my baby?”

“I wouldn’t go that far. Things don’t look quite as good right now as I’d like them to, but it doesn’t look too serious.” The doctor took the wand away and wiped the gel from Chloe’s belly. “I’ll e-mail you a list of foods you should eat more of and foods to avoid, and you should pick up some prenatal vitamins if you’re not taking them already. But the main thing I want you to focus on is trying to reduce your stress however you can. If your friends are helping you, let them help, and try not to focus too much on the people who aren’t helping you.”

Chloe didn’t answer, only lowering her gaze to her belly and pressing a hand against it.

Sabrina told the doctor, “I’ll be there for Chloe twenty-four/seven! She can count on me!”

“Good.” The doctor headed for the door. “I’ll let you get dressed.”

Adrien released Chloe’s hand, but before he went back into the hall, he said softly, “Think about what the doctor said. Please. For your daughter.”

Her eyes tightened with pain, but she didn’t answer.

He left her to change. Surely Chloe knew that all the stress she was under, she was putting on herself with her chronic denial and refusal to accept the support others offered. True, she couldn’t help how her parents reacted, but lying to them wouldn’t do any good in the long run. It was obvious that she felt guilty for doing anything that might have harmed her baby, but would that be enough to get her to let go of her pride and arrogance?

Adrien had known Chloe for a long time, so he knew the answer to that question. But he hoped he was wrong.


	42. Chapter 42

Miss Bustier’s wedding was held in the courtyard of the high school. The bride’s workplace wasn’t exactly the most romantic choice possible, but wedding venues were getting extremely hard to come by. Miss Bustier and Victor weren’t the only couple wanting to make things official before their babies came.

When the class had found out about the trouble Miss Bustier and her groom were having in finding not only a venue, but a caterer, band, flowers, and everything else on short notice, they’d all eagerly pitched in to give their wonderful teacher the wedding she deserved. Or at least the closest to it that they could possibly get.

Marinette designed and created Miss Bustier’s wedding dress from scratch, putting all her love and appreciation for her teacher into every stitch. Adrien played music for the ceremony on a keyboard borrowed from Anarka. Kitty Section and Nino decided to share the entertainment duties, alternating between DJing and live music so that they all had time to enjoy the reception. Marinette’s parents provided the cake, of course. And the whole class all gave up a Saturday morning to decorate the courtyard and get everything set up in time for the afternoon wedding.

The ceremony wasn’t strictly necessary, as the couple had gotten all the legal paperwork done at City Hall on Friday, but Marinette was glad that Miss Bustier was having an event they could all attend to celebrate her good news. Plus, it was the first wedding Marinette had ever gone to (which made creating the gown for it all the more special and well worth the effort it had taken).

Marinette sat on the second seat in her row, with Alya on her left and Nino on Alya’s left, surrounded by the rest of their classmates on Miss Bustier’s side of the center aisle. Flawlessly elegant piano music played as Miss Bustier walked down the aisle, radiant in her white gown.

Alya leaned close to whisper, “That dress is amazing, Marinette.”

“Thanks,” Marinette whispered back. “It’s amazing seeing it on her. She looks beautiful.” It was unexpectedly tricky to come up with a gown design that looked good on a pregnant woman, then tailor it correctly while the woman’s measurements slowly changed over time. The short engagement at least worked out favorably on that count.

They watched happily as Miss Bustier walked to the front and took her place beside the groom—a handsome, brunet man—with a man and woman Marinette didn’t recognize serving as Best Man and Maid of Honor. The piano music faded away like a butler backing out of a room.

As the priest started the ceremony with a welcome, Adrien silently slipped into the seat beside Marinette. She couldn’t help casting him a quick glance, just like she couldn’t help the blush that sprang to her cheeks at the sight of him. He looked so gorgeous in his dark grey suit with a waistcoat the same green as his eyes.

He smiled and winked at her. Her cheeks flared with heat, and she had to look forward to avoid fainting dead away.

The ceremony was short and sweet, ending with the groom, Victor, carefully going in for a chaste kiss.

“They look so good together,” Marinette cooed as the crowd cheered.

Alya laughed. “They do, but that guy looks like he definitely would have taken way too long to get anywhere if he hadn’t gotten a kick in the pants.”

The husband and wife walked back down the aisle together, both beaming with joy, and took up a spot near one of the walls. While some of their guests went over to give their regards, some of the others (mostly male students) quickly moved aside all the chairs, clearing the courtyard for the reception. Marinette stood chatting with Alya until Adrien and Nino rejoined them.

As Adrien approached her, looking like some kind of wingless angel, Marinette’s cheeks warmed.

“The wedding dress you made is gorgeous, Marinette,” he told her. “I’ll need to get a photo of it to show Father.”

“What? No, that’s not—I mean, if you think he—that is, if you’re . . . ” She was completely floundering for words. _Focus, brain_ , she commanded sternly. “Your music was really pretty, too.”

“Thanks. Nice to know all that practice comes in handy sometimes.” His gaze swept over her, down to her feet and back to her face. “Did you make your dress, too? It’s really nice.”

She glanced down at the blue dress she was wearing. “Oh, this? I didn’t have time to make something from scratch, since I was doing Miss Bustier’s dress, so this is an older design I made as practice last year. I just had to adjust it for my, uh, current measurements.” Of the three dresses she’d had on hand to work with, this was the design easiest to alter to look like it was _meant_ to be a maternity dress.

The moment she looked up, she heard a shutter snap. Adrien smiled behind his phone. “Perfect.”

Marinette’s jaw dropped. “What are you doing?”

He still hadn’t put his phone away. “Texting this to my father.”

“What? Don’t do that!”

“It’s done.”

“No! Adrien! This was just a last-minute, make-do design!” She looked to Alya, but Alya and Nino were too busy laughing to help.

Adrien’s phone dinged, and he looked at it. Then frowned.

“He hates it!” Marinette would have torn at her hair in humiliation, except she’d done it up in cute little buns that she didn’t want to mess up.

“No, it’s not that!” Adrien assured her, then frowned at the phone again. “It’s just that Father’s kind of a weird texter. He doesn’t text me directly very often, so it always catches me off-guard.” He showed her the phone screen. Gabriel had replied to the photo Adrien sent with nothing but three emojis: a thumbs-up, a swan, and a star.

Marinette forgot her panic. “What does that mean?”

Adrien shrugged. “Stars and thumbs-up are always good, right? And swans are known for being beautiful and elegant. I think that means he likes it.”

Alya leaned over to examine the text. “Swans are also known for being mean.”

Nino peered close to the text as well. “A thumbs-up could also mean ‘up yours’, and a star could be an explosion, like a disaster.”

Marinette’s panic was back. “Not helping, guys.”

Now Nino was on his phone. “According to the internet, swans mate for life and typically bond even before reaching adulthood.”

More heat flooded into Marinette’s face, and her eyes went to anywhere that wasn’t Adrien’s face.

“Interesting,” observed Alya. “Maybe the text means, ‘Good job picking a life-mate, Adrien. Gold star for you.’ ”

Adrien rubbed the back of his head and cleared his throat. “I think you guys are reading too much into it. I’m pretty sure Father just doesn’t fully understand emojis and didn’t want to take time to type words, so he tapped the first positive-looking pictures he saw.”

Kitty Section started playing the first song.

Marinette pointed to the receiving line. “Hey, shouldn’t we go congratulate the happy couple?”

“Good idea,” Adrien agreed hastily. “I do think that’s customary.”

Alya rolled her eyes at them. “You guys do that if you want. Nino and I want to get our dance on before he has to tag in to DJ.”

#

Nino took Alya’s hand and led her toward the makeshift dance floor.

“Can Adrien really be _that_ thick-headed?” Alya asked him.

“Say the word and we can stage an intervention,” he offered.

Alya considered it, then sighed. “No. It won’t work if they don’t figure it out for themselves. If we push him into doing something before he decides he’s ready to love her, I’m afraid he’ll break her heart. And then I’d have to kill him, and I’d hate to do that to you.”

Nino grinned. “You spoil me, babe.”

They danced a few songs, then took a breather to get some punch. There were extra chairs set up against the walls, so they grabbed a couple behind the stairs to get some privacy.

Alya chugged her punch and melted into her chair, one hand on her belly. “Oof, the baby hasn’t gotten the message that it’s time to stop dancing.”

Nino put his arm around Alya’s shoulders and leaned closer, sliding his other hand under hers, over the curve of her belly. The strange movements he felt against his palm put a smile on his face. “Sorry, babe. Guess she inherited my sense of rhythm.”

“You can make it up to me by not ever buying her a drum set.”

His smile widened. He loved how easily they talked about their future together, how natural it had been right from the start. He’d told her he was in this with her all the way, and she’d taken him at his word.

Nino kissed his girlfriend’s cheek. “I love you, Alya. You know that, right?”

She smiled back at him. “Of course, Nino. I love you, too.”

“Good. So, we’re gonna get married, right?”

“What, right now?”

“Well, the priest is still here.”

Her eyes widened, and he laughed.

“Not _right_ now—I wouldn’t try to steal Miss Bustier’s thunder like that—but I was thinking as soon as we could. We’ll have to look into the details. I’ve heard rumors that the mayor is considering making a temporary allowance for underage marriage if it’s because of Fairy Grandmother stuff.”

Alya was staring at him like she was trying to decide if he was joking or not. “This isn’t because of what I said about someone needing a kick in the pants, is it? I wasn’t talking about you.”

“I know, babe. I’ve been thinking about this for a while.” Reluctantly taking his hand away from her belly, Nino reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box. He opened it to show her a ring. He hadn’t been able to afford much, just a thin, gold band with a small sapphire, but it was nice and shiny.

The surprise on her face didn’t last long before it turned into a bright smile. “Marinette was right. I really do have the best boyfriend.” She took the ring and kissed him.

“Nah, babe. You have the best fiancé.”

#

After congratulating Miss Bustier and her husband (her name was actually Mrs. Chemise now, but she said they could all keep calling her Miss Bustier, since they were used to it), Marinette sat and enjoyed the show. She would have liked to dance, but Kitty Section’s music was a little too lively for her right now. It had taken her until late last night to finish Miss Bustier’s dress, then she’d had to get up early this morning to help with the decorating.

Most of her friends who weren’t on stage were on the dance floor. Adrien was dancing with Chloe, which normally would have annoyed Marinette, except that it wasn’t a slow dance, and Chloe had been looking pretty down ever since she’d stopped living in denial. Marinette couldn’t find it in her heart to resent the pick-me-up that dancing with Adrien seemed to give Chloe. Plus, it gave Marinette a chance to watch Adrien dance without being too obvious about it. His smile was as bright as the sun, and even though he didn’t exactly let loose out there, he was clearly enjoying himself.

There was a pause in the music to cut the wedding cake. Marinette wanted a piece, but she decided to wait until everyone else had grabbed one. She could have her parents’ cake any time she wanted, after all.

The music started up again, but it was different, and Marinette looked up to see that Nino had started DJing, giving the band a break. The first song was a nice, easy tune, not nearly as energetic or high-tempo as Kitty Section’s music. Marinette stood and looked to where Adrien was drinking some punch and chatting with one of the teachers.

Had he forgotten about Alya’s embarrassing comments earlier? Probably. He sure looked at ease. Marinette slowly sidled closer to him. It took most of the length of the song to reach him.

“H-hi, Adrien,” she said.

He turned and smiled at her. “Hi, Marinette. Want to dance?”

“I’d love to!”

He tossed his empty cup in the trash and took her hand to lead her to the dance floor. Five seconds after they started dancing, the music changed—to a slow, romantic song.

Adrien gave her a _What can you do?_ shrug and held out a hand to her. She took it, and he put his other hand on her waist, sweeping her gracefully into an easy turn.

She wanted so badly to hold him closer, the way they’d danced once at Chloe’s party, but he’d chosen the position he’d chosen, and Alya didn’t swoop in to reposition their hands this time. It was probably for the best. After how uncomfortable he’d looked at Alya’s romantic implications earlier, he might not take it as casually as he had back then. Besides, things were . . . very different between Adrien and Marinette now. They both had things in their heads which might give such a close embrace more weight than it used to have.

So, Marinette just enjoyed the dance, treasuring his smile, the feel of his hand in hers, and the joy of moving together in sync.

“You’re still a really good dancer,” he told her.

“You sure? I’ve been told I’m getting clumsier. Not that I need the help.”

He frowned. “That’s mean. Who would say that to you?”

“A well-meaning friend. He was right, though. And it’s only going to get worse the next few months.”

“Then you’d better get as much dancing in now as you can.”

The next song was a peppier, swingier tune, and Adrien shifted to hold both of her hands in his. As the music played, he gave her some playful twirls, and she laughed in delight. The song eased into a verse between rounds of the chorus just as Luka and Juleka danced by.

Adrien spotted them and tapped Luka’s shoulder. “I haven’t danced with Juleka yet. Mind switching partners?”

Marinette’s heart absolutely shattered.

Luka looked at Marinette with concern. “Uh . . . ”

Forcing her pain deep down, Marinette smiled at Luka. “Sure, Luka! Let’s dance!”

She didn’t miss the flash of intense sympathy on Juleka’s face right before Adrien released Marinette and whisked Juleka away.

Luka took Marinette’s hands. “You sure you want to keep dancing?”

“Sure!” It would look extremely strange if she stopped now. Adrien would know something was wrong. He might track her down and make her tell him. Then he might figure out how she felt about him, which would be a disaster . . . when he so clearly didn’t feel the same way.

It was a blessing when the music changed again to another slow song and Luka was able to wrap his arms around her, giving her a comforting hug while making it look like a normal dance.

Marinette leaned her head against Luka’s chest, fighting hard against the tears that wanted to come. “Why did he throw me away?” she whimpered softly enough that only Luka could hear.

His arms tightened around her waist. “I’m so sorry, Marinette.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (meanwhile, on the sidelines)  
> Adrien: I did such a good job. Go me!  
> Literally everyone else: ADRIEN YOU IDIOT!


	43. Chapter 43

Marinette spent the rest of the wedding trying with all her might to pretend that everything was fine. Every time she happened to spot Adrien in the crowd, tears filled her eyes. She just knew that if he actually came up to talk to her, she’d break down in a sobbing mess and ruin the wedding. Luckily, staying close to Luka seemed to keep Adrien at bay for some reason. Marinette knew it wasn’t nice to rely like that on a guy who probably still had romantic feelings for her, but Luka didn’t give any indication of being uncomfortable with it. He danced with her and murmured comfort into her ear and kept her close so she could bury her face into him when the tears threatened to fall. And he very noticeably never said, “I’ve changed my mind, Marinette. I want to be with you,” or anything of the sort. In fact, he never said anything that even hinted in that direction. He was only being a good friend to her and nothing more, as he’d promised he would.

When the music stopped and Luka pulled away, saying he had to get back on stage, Marinette realized that they’d probably put the tag-out off for longer than they’d planned to because they knew Marinette needed him. As soon as he let go of her, Alya was there, tucking Marinette under her arm. Apparently Marinette hadn’t been doing as a good a job of pretending everything was normal as she’d thought. Or maybe her friends were just keeping an eye out for her. Whatever they were doing to communicate Marinette’s distress between them, she hoped Adrien hadn’t noticed it.

“You look pretty tired, Marinette,” Alya said a touch too loudly to be normal. “Not feeling good? Need me to take you home?”

All Marinette had to do was nod.

Alya steered her toward the main doors. From the corner of her eye, Marinette saw Adrien heading her way, probably trying to do the gentlemanly thing and see her home. Nino swooped in and cut him off, catching his attention for long enough that Alya was able to get her out of the school.

Alya and Marinette hurried silently across the street toward home, not stopping until they reached Marinette’s bedroom. Once her door was shut, Marinette collapsed onto her chaise longue and let her tears fall. Alya sat down beside her and put an arm around her shoulders as Marinette sobbed.

They stayed that way for a while, neither of them saying anything, until Marinette’s crying subsided. Her head throbbed, her eyes stung, and she couldn’t breathe through her nose. Alya found some tissues and handed them to her.

As Marinette made an attempt to clean herself up, Alya said, “You want me to go beat him up?”

It surprised a laugh out of Marinette, though she knew her friend wasn’t actually kidding. “No. Could you just stay here with me? I think I’d like some girl time.”

“Absolutely.” Alya pulled out her phone to send a text. “I’m asking Nora to bring me some of my things. I’ll stay right here with you until we have to go to school on Monday.”

That sounded amazing, but Marinette felt a little guilty about taking up her time like that. “You’re sure?”

“I don’t have any other plans, and even if I did, I’d drop them. This is definitely a ‘drop all your plans and stay at your BFF’s side’ situation.”

Marinette sniffed and wiped her nose. “Thanks, Alya. You’re the best.”

For the rest of the weekend, Marinette stayed home with her best friend and tried to forget boys even existed. (It was a little hard to do that when both of them were carrying around the evidence of boys’ existence right there in their own bodies.) They talked and watched movies and played video games. A few of her other girl friends dropped by to check on her, and she was pretty sure Alya was giving Nino a running update, which he was likely conveying to her other friends-of-unspecified-non-female-gender. From the way her mom kept unobtrusively popping through Marinette’s door with food and otherwise leaving them alone, she guessed that Alya had explained the situation to her parents.

Late Sunday night, when she was sure that Alya was asleep on the chaise longue, Marinette whispered quietly with Tikki in her bed.

“I’m not sure I can do this, Tikki. I’m not sure I can see him again and pretend like my heart isn’t breaking.”

The little kwami stroked Marinette’s forehead with her tiny paw. “Sure you can, Marinette. You’re strong. Maybe it won’t even hurt as much as you think to see him.”

“I hope so.” Marinette snuggled closer into her pillow.

“I know it hurts now, Marinette, but I believe the pain will go away in time.”

When she moved on from him? When she stopped wanting something he clearly wasn’t interested in giving her? “I don’t know if I can stop loving him, Tikki.”

Tikki said nothing, only pressed a sweet kiss to her cheek. As an immortal kwami, Tikki had probably seen humans going through heartbreak more times than she could count. She certainly knew more about getting over hopeless love than Marinette did, at least from an outside perspective. If she said the pain would fade in time, she had to be right.

#

Adrien’s weekend had been very busy. In exchange for letting him help with and attend Miss Bustier’s wedding on Saturday, he hadn’t had a single spare moment on Sunday. A photoshoot, a press conference for the Gabriel brand’s upcoming season (during which he didn’t have to do anything but stand in the back and look pretty, thankfully), a business lunch with the Tsurugis (which at least gave him an opportunity to catch up with Kagami), fittings for three different future shoots, a practice match for an upcoming fencing competition, and then homework before bed. It was a good thing there hadn’t been a supervillain attack, since he didn’t know how he would have gotten away to deal with it.

Walking into school on Monday morning felt like he was getting a nice, relaxing break.

“Morning, guys,” he said as he passed Ivan and Mylène. Ivan didn’t respond. Mylène scowled at Adrien and pulled Ivan away, continuing whatever she’d been saying as if she hadn’t heard Adrien.

_Someone_ was having a bad morning.

Adrien went into the locker room, where a bunch of his classmates were standing around their lockers. He saw Marinette talking with Alya and moved to greet them.

Nino’s arm was suddenly around Adrien’s neck, pulling him a different direction. “Hey, bud! How’s it going? I heard about this great game that I _have_ to tell you about.”

“Sounds good,” Adrien said, trying to turn back toward Marinette, but Nino’s grip was unexpectedly strong. She and Alya closed their lockers and began walking away. “Let me just ask Marinette if she wants me to carry her—”

Max dashed over and took Marinette’s bag. “Marinette, let me get that for you!” Adrien watched, still trapped by Nino’s grip, as Max accompanied Marinette and Alya out the door.

When they were gone, Nino released Adrien. “Oh, sorry about that, dude. Guess I was holding you a little tightly there.”

“It’s fine.” Adrien straightened his collar and went to his locker. As long as _someone_ was helping Marinette, she didn’t need him specifically. “What were you saying about a game?”

They chatted about the game until they reached their seats in class, when Adrien stopped to set his bag by his feet and pull out his tablet. Behind him, he could hear Marinette muttering, “It’s fine. I can handle it.”

He turned to smile at her. “Good morning, Marinette.”

She smiled back. “Morn gooding, Adrien.”

He shifted his attention to Alya, his mouth already open to greet her, but he closed it quickly and turned to face forward. When he heard Alya and Marinette talking again, he leaned closer to Nino and whispered, “Why did Alya glare at me like that? Is she okay?”

“Ehh.” Nino got all shifty-eyed. “Probably hormones.”

“Oh. Yeah. That makes sense.”

Miss Bustier strolled into class like it was any normal school day.

“Miss Bustier!” Alya said in surprise. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be on your honeymoon?”

“Victor and I had a very nice weekend,” Miss Bustier said, sounding genuinely pleased, “but we couldn’t afford to take a vacation at the moment. Thank you all for coming to our wedding and helping out with it. It made me very happy.”

As she got class started, a thought occurred to Adrien. Namely, what Miss Bustier and her new husband had likely spent the whole weekend after their wedding doing.

Adrien ducked his head and pretended to take notes, desperately trying to hide his blush.

No, this was Miss Bustier. And Victor had barely been able to kiss her in front of people. They definitely hadn’t spent the _whole_ time doing that.

But they must have spent _some_ time doing it.

All because it had happened once, thanks to Hawk Moth’s villain. What was it like the second time around, when they could actually remember it?

What would it be like—

Adrien shook his head. _Stop it. Stop thinking about it._ But flashes of memory kept bursting like fireworks in his brain.

Marinette’s naked breasts.

_(They’re bigger now.)_

Marinette’s soft skin.

_(She’s been moisturizing.)_

Marinette’s hot, tight—

Adrien shook his head frantically, trying to physically shake the memories out.

Miss Bustier asked, “Adrien, are you okay?”

Adrien looked up to find her watching him with concern. He was about to make an excuse to leave when he realized that doing so might be more embarrassing than staying put, so he crossed his legs and tried to act casual. “I think I got some water in my ear during my shower this morning. That’s all. Sorry for interrupting.”

The answer was satisfactory, and Miss Bustier got the class back on track.

_I am the worst friend ever_ , Adrien thought miserably.

The shame and self-disgust that washed over him succeeded in chasing away all those unwanted thoughts and memories.

When lunch time came, Adrien still felt horrible. How could he have had those kind of thoughts for Marinette, even briefly? She was his _friend_. He was in love with _Ladybug_. Which meant that whatever part of him was creating those thoughts about Marinette was only interested in something base and insulting, and Marinette was worth so much more than that.

Adrien trudged out of the classroom, heading for lunch but not sure which location that meant. Was his bodyguard picking him up today to take him home for lunch? He pulled his phone out of his pocket to check. As he checked his schedule, he heard Nino and Alya murmuring behind him. Then Alya and Marinette were whispering.

“Adrien, bro, you okay?” Nino asked.

Adrien jumped, almost dropping his phone. “I . . . I’m all right, Nino. Just—” When he turned his head to look at Nino beside him, he caught a glimpse of Marinette farther back and flinched. “I just have some things on my mind, but it’s nothing big enough for you to worry about.”

Nino leaned closer and whispered, “Is it something between you and Marinette?” So, he hadn’t missed Adrien’s flinch.

“No, it’s not Marinette. This is all me. I’ll get over it, though.”

“In that case,” Nino said, his voice back to a normal volume, “why don’t we all have lunch at Marinette’s house? Alya and I want to talk to you about something.”

Talk about what? Marinette’s parents did make amazing sandwiches. Curiosity and hunger pushed out a lot of Adrien’s depressed mood. “Okay. That sounds good.”

When they got to the bakery, Tom shot Adrien a look that gave him Weredad flashbacks before disappearing into the back room.

“Did I do something wrong?” Adrien asked Sabine.

Sabine gave Adrien a smile that wasn’t quite as warm as usual. “I’m sure you didn’t, Adrien. Why don’t you and Nino go on upstairs.”

_You can’t tell me he’s being hormonal, too_ , Adrien thought as he and Nino went up to the living room. They poured some glasses of water and set them on the table. “ _Did_ I do something wrong, Nino? It seems like lots of people are glaring at me today.”

Nino let out a loud breath. “You know how sometimes you think what you’re doing is okay, but you find out later it wasn’t?”

“Yeah . . . ”

“Well, maybe at some point you’ll figure out what you did.”

“That’s just about the least helpful way you could have answered my question, Nino.”

“Sorry, dude. It’s the best I can do for now.”

Adrien would have pressed him for more, but the girls came up with four sandwiches. They took seats at the table, with Adrien beside Marinette and Nino and Alya across from them. For several minutes, they focused on eating their lunch.

When they were basically finished eating, Nino said, “I guess we’d better tell you why we wanted to talk to you.”

“We were thinking of telling the whole class at once,” said Alya, “but it didn’t seem right not to let our best friends know first.” She took a ring out of her pocket and put it on her left hand. “Nino and I are engaged.”

Adrien stared at them. Surely he hadn’t heard that right.

Marinette squealed. “What?!”

But Nino and Alya both had big, happy smiles on their faces. “We’re getting married,” Nino said.

So, Adrien _had_ heard it right. As he processed the news, a smile grew on his own face. “That’s amazing news. I’m so happy for you guys.”

“Thanks, bud!” said Nino.

Marinette gaped at all of them. “Married? When? How?”

“As soon as they’ll let us,” said Alya. “We’ve already talked to our families, and they’re not _thrilled_ with the idea, but considering the whole baby circumstance, they’re on board with it.”

“They’re _on board_ with it?!” Marinette repeated incredulously.

Nino nodded. “And since we have parental approval, we can probably do it by next year, or maybe even earlier. We haven’t had time to look into the details yet.”

“Aren’t you rushing into things?” Marinette argued.

“Maybe a little,” Nino said, “but I’ve known Alya’s the one for me for a while, and now that we have a little girl on the way, I’m definitely not ever going to abandon them. So why not lock things down now and get on with our lives?”

Marinette slapped her hand on her forehead like she thought her friends were being ridiculously impulsive.

“Aren’t you happy for them, Marinette?” Adrien asked. “I think it’s really romantic. And practical. Nino’s right. Why wait if they’re sure now?”

Marinette turned her incredulous look on him. “Practical?” Her wide eyes snapped back to Nino and Alya, “Whose family will you live with, or will they expect you to get your own place? Are they gonna support you, or will you get jobs?”

“We’ll figure it out,” Alya said casually.

“And those are all things we were already going to have to figure out, what with the baby,” Nino pointed out.

“They’re right, Marinette,” Adrien said.

She visibly worked through some more thoughts and arguments before all the panic left her and her shoulders relaxed. “Yeah, they are.” She gave her friends a rather weak smile. “I’m happy for you.”

Alya said, “Good. We’ve still got some time before we have to be back at school. How about we squeeze some video games in?”

Nino leapt toward the TV. “I challenge Alya first!”

_That’s one way to bring everything back down to normal_ , Adrien thought. He took their plates to the sink, then joined the rest of them on the couch.

Nino beat Alya in Mecha Strike, then Adrien played Nino and won. Marinette took the controller from Nino.

“We’ll leave you two to settle the last match,” Alya said. “Nino and I want to talk about something real quick before class.”

Adrien looked up in time to see the door closing behind them, leaving him and Marinette alone in her living room. She looked kind of nervous all of a sudden, but she’d already picked her fighter, so Adrien pressed the button to start the game. As soon as the match start music blared from the TV, Marinette snapped into gamer mode, which Adrien liked a lot better than nervous-for-some-reason-I-can’t-understand mode.

He’d been practicing at home, so he held out against her for longer than he used to be able to. She was about to deliver the finishing move, gloating expression already on her face, when suddenly she gasped and hesitated long enough for Adrien to make _his_ finishing move.

When he looked beside him to tease her for losing, she wasn’t even paying any attention to the screen. She dropped the controller to the couch beside her and pressed both hands to her belly.

Adrien’s adrenaline spiked. “What is it?! What’s wrong?!”

But then she smiled. And laughed.

He relaxed and turned off the TV to give her his full attention. “What is it?” he asked again, much more calmly this time.

“The baby’s moving around again.”

Adrien stared at her belly. “Is it . . . Can I . . . ?”

When she met his eyes, the nervousness was back.

He leaned away from her. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to push.”

She swallowed hard. “No, it’s okay. I think you can feel it now.”

Feel it? Did she mean . . . ? Was he emotionally prepared for this? Hoping he understood her correctly, he reached slowly toward her. She moved one of her hands aside, and he gently pressed his hand against the firm roundness of her belly. The shirt she had on was thin, and he could feel her body heat through the fabric.

“Here.” She gently took his wrist and moved his hand to a different spot on her belly.

He felt movement and gasped. Then two little nudges against his palm. He forgot how to breathe. His vision blurred with tears.

His son. That was his son. He had a son, and he could feel him right there against his hand.

Overcome with emotion, completely unaware of what exactly he was doing, Adrien shifted his position on the couch to get lower. He pressed his cheek against his son’s tiny little room and murmured to him, “Hi there, little bun. I’m your dad. And I love you.”

Step one of fatherhood: Love him.

Step two of fatherhood: Tell him as often as possible.

It seemed so obvious. Why did some people find it so hard?

Adrien’s perception suddenly expanded, and he realized that he was basically cuddling Marinette’s belly, and she had gone stiff.

He sat up, not quite able to take his hand away from the movements his son was making. “Uh . . . sorry about that.”

Marinette’s face was bright red. “It’s okay,” she squeaked.

Seeing her blush made Adrien blush, especially since this was the closest they’d been in a way that wasn’t an ordinary hug since . . . “I don’t mean to invade your space, but . . . can we sit here for a few more minutes? This is probably the most amazing thing I’ve ever experienced, and I’d like to soak it in a little. If that’s all right.”

He sat up and relaxed against the back of the couch with his shoulder leaning against Marinette’s, his hand still resting on her belly. Relaxing into the cushions a little more, he got comfortable, and he felt her body relaxing against his, too.

They didn’t speak. Adrien closed his eyes and focused on the sensations of movement under his hand. And the warmth of Marinette against his side. And the soft, soothing sound of her breathing.

He thought of the news Alya and Nino had just told them.

Adrien’s voice was a low murmur, speaking his thoughts aloud. “I could marry you.” He kept his eyes closed, so he couldn’t see if she was reacting, but he kept the stream of words flowing so she would know he didn’t expect a response. “It would be what’s best for him. It would be good for us. I know we could be happy.” His mind knew that was true. His body was certainly in favor of the idea. On some instinctive, cellular level, his body already considered her his. But Adrien was a person ruled by his heart. “The problem is, I couldn’t love you like you deserve to be loved. Maybe I could have, if I hadn’t met her. But there’s someone else I love, and she has my whole heart. My future’s with her; I know it in my soul. I don’t care if she’s having some other guy’s baby. She’s the only one for me. You and I will make this situation work, and you know I’ll always be here for you as a friend, and I’ll be the best dad I possibly can to our son. But, Marinette, if there’s someone who can love you with his whole heart, who can love you like I love her, please don’t let him get away.” Adrien had been so proud of himself for giving Marinette time with Luka at the wedding (and from the way she’d stayed in Luka’s arms for so long, she’d clearly enjoyed it), but when Adrien had asked the other boy later if he and Marinette were dating, Luka had only given him a slightly annoyed look and said they weren’t. Was he getting tired of waiting for her? Was she holding off on being with him because she wasn’t sure what Adrien wanted or expected from her? Adrien needed to make it clear to her that he completely supported her being with the person who could really make her happy. Luka was an amazing guy and clearly in love with her; Adrien wouldn’t be able to live with himself if she missed out on that because of him. “Please don’t hesitate on my account. If that’s what you’re doing. I don’t know that it is, but I just . . . wanted you to know.”

Marinette didn’t say anything. She was so quiet and still, Adrien wondered if she’d fallen asleep. He opened his eyes and sat up enough to look at her, but she had her head bowed. _Was_ she asleep?

“Marinette? Did you hear me?”

“Yes.” Her whisper was so soft, he could barely hear it.

The baby had quieted down, too. Adrien couldn’t feel his son’s movements anymore. “We should get back to class.”

“You go.” Still barely a whisper. “I need a few more minutes. Please tell the teacher I’ll be late.”

He couldn’t see her eyes, and he couldn’t read any emotion in her voice. Had he upset her somehow? Or was she just thinking about Luka and deciding what to do? Or maybe she could still feel the baby’s movements and wanted to linger a bit.

Adrien peeled himself away and stood up. “All right. Call or text me if I can do anything to help.”

#

As soon as Adrien was gone, Tikki flew over and alighted on Marinette’s belly. Marinette met her kwami’s eyes, not sure what to say. Not sure what Tikki would say.

Marinette had managed not to cry. She’d even managed not to show her devastation visibly at all. Maybe it was because she’d gotten all her crying and grieving out over the weekend. Hearing Adrien say something she already knew apparently didn’t have the power to wreck her like she would have expected.

The dream she’d been holding onto since she’d found out she was pregnant—and even well before that—was gone. It had never been possible. Never been real. No more than a puff of vapor.

Adrien didn’t love her and would never love her. He’d said it in the nicest way anyone probably could have, but he’d left no room for doubt or misinterpretation.

Finally, her voice broke the silence in the room. She was surprised at how steady it sounded. “He’s right, Tikki. I deserve someone who can love me with his whole heart. Someone who wants me more than anyone else. And if Adrien can’t give me that, it’s not his fault. I’m still really lucky to have him in my life. But I can’t keep wishing for something that isn’t ever gonna happen.”

“What are you going to do, Marinette?” Tikki asked.

“I want to be loved, Tikki. I want to be wanted. And even though I know Adrien’s going to be a great dad, if we have to split custody, he won’t be able to be a dad during the times when he’s not around. My baby’s going to want a dad during all that time, too. I’m so tired of having my heart broken, Tikki. I just want to give it to someone who will cherish it.”

“I think I know of someone like that, Marinette.”

The stony expression that Marinette’s face had settled into during Adrien’s monologue cracked around the edges and softened into a small, surrendering smile. “I think I do, too.”


	44. Chapter 44

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, so many comments! I really love how you all are engaging with the story. I may not respond to many of them (mostly because I want to resist influencing your interpretation of the story or leaving spoilers), but I read all of them, even the really long ones. I love all your humor, encouragement, analyses, and discussion. To those who are leaving terrific support: Thank you so much; it means a lot to me. To those who are expressing frustration: I totally get it. Everyone has their own levels of tolerance for angst and misunderstandings. I do try my best to make the misunderstandings as believable as I can, but it's always a question of whether I'll succeed in convincing any particular reader or not. 
> 
> I always try my best to write the characters as in-character as I can, based on my true interpretation of canon--though other people will have different (sometimes very different) interpretations. (The show doesn't help this discrepancy by not having the most consistent characterization I've ever seen.) I just rewatched "The Puppeteer 2", and that scene where Marinette confesses to him, thinking he's a statue? Even a brain-dead monkey would know that her surprised reaction meant she didn't know it was really him, but when she tells him she knew, he just accepts it. (I'll avoid going into a whole analysis about that here, though.) So I'm trying my best to work with what canon gives us, within the context of this plot. Honestly, all that stuff is part of the fun for me (and, I suspect, for a lot of us). 
> 
> Regarding the love square ships, I don't really separate them in my mind as much as some people, since they very much are the same characters. But we are going to get a lot of both Ladybug/Cat Noir and Marinette/Adrien going forward, so no worries that I'm totally abandoning one for the other. 
> 
> Oh, and a quick reminder that there are some elements of season 3 that aren't necessarily included in the timeline of this story, mostly because in this timeline, Lila never came back to school. So the episode "Oni-chan", which is highly Lila-centric, didn't really happen. Which means that Adrien never found out that Kagami had really serious feelings about him.
> 
> I hope you all continue to enjoy my story, and thank you for all the encouragement, comments, and thoughts. :-)

For some reason, when Adrien came back to class alone, Alya was back to glaring at him. When he took his seat, she leaned over her desk (as much as she could with her belly in the way) and growled, “What happened to Marinette?”

He held up his hands. “She’s fine. She just needed a few minutes.”

“What did you say to her?”

“No—” He stopped. He obviously hadn’t said _nothing_ , and he didn’t want to lie. “Nothing that could have upset her. I don’t think.”

Alya rolled her eyes, groaned, and smacked her forehead all at once. Sitting back in her seat, she pulled out her phone and started texting.

Adrien raised his hand. “Miss Bustier, Marinette might be a little late back to class.”

“That’s fine,” replied the teacher. “Thank you for letting me know.”

As class got started, Adrien could hear Alya’s agitation behind him. Maybe Marinette wasn’t responding to her texts. But when Marinette came into the room five minutes after class started, she looked fine, so Alya calmed down.

When the break between classes came, Nino bounded up to the front and said loudly, “Hang on, dudes! Alya and I have an announcement.” Curiosity stayed everyone’s feet, and they waited as Alya joined Nino up front and took his hand.

Surely Rose had some kind of eagle-eyed superpower, because before they could even say anything, Rose shot to her feet, pointed, and cried out, “You’re engaged!”

The room broke into confused muttering.

“Dang, Rose,” Alya said, holding up her left hand. The rest of the class, now understanding Rose’s outburst, reacted with surprise and more confusion. “I guess I shouldn’t have put this on until after we announced it.”

“Way to take the wind out of our sails there, Rose,” Nino groused. “Fair warning to everyone else, though,” he added with a pointed look at Adrien. Adrien had no objection at all to Nino’s assumption that he might have a similar announcement to make at some point, but there was no reason to worry about this particular problem, since Ladybug wasn’t in their class.

“Sorry!” Rose yelped, blushing with embarrassment. “I didn’t mean to!”

Alya sighed. “We know, Rose. We forgive you. So, yeah, everyone. That’s our news.”

“This certainly is a surprise,” said Miss Bustier. “Are you sure about this?”

“Definitely,” Nino told her, wrapping his arm around Alya’s shoulders. “Right, babe?”

“Absolutely.” Alya kissed him and added in a low voice, “I was even before the baby.”

“Wooo!” Adrien cheered, clapping for his friends. Most of the rest of the class joined in the applause and well-wishing, though they were still loudly whispering questions amongst themselves.

Chloe’s voice interrupted the applause. “Are we done here?” She got up and strode out of the room, followed by Sabrina.

The sudden shift in tone left an uncomfortable silence in the room, which Nino filled with the comment, “Yikes. Chloe’s superhero name should have been Buzzkill.”

Everyone laughed at that, and Adrien gave his friend an impressed thumbs-up for the pun.

Halfway through their next period, Sabrina screamed. Everyone jumped in shock and looked over to see her pointing out the window.

A few blocks in the distance, a giant, sloth-like creature with enormous claws was clambering over rooftops. Very, very slowly.

 _Not one of Hawk Moth’s best_ , Adrien noted.

“Wow, that’s crazy!” Kim shouted, running up to the window to draw even more attention and get other people to move to the window while Nino and Max quietly slipped out of the room. Seconds later, his phone rang, and he made a big show of looking at it. “It’s Ondine! I’d better take this!” And then he ran out the door.

With his head turned to watch the rest of the class, Adrien noticed when Marinette swayed and put her hand to her forehead.

“Are you all right, Marinette?” he asked. “Do you need to go lie down?” Every time a supervillain appeared when they were in class these days, Marinette got lightheaded. She’d never done that before the pregnancy. Maybe it was like how pregnancy made women crave foods they never usually liked. The stress of a villain attack, which she usually handled really well, now made her lightheaded. It concerned Adrien a little, but she was always right back to normal afterward, and it did give him a good excuse to leave the room.

“Yeah, I think so,” she said, and Adrien helped her to her feet and walked her to the door, giving Miss Bustier a glance on the way. The teacher was used to Marinette’s response to supervillains by now, too, and she just nodded them on.

Slothra turned out to be as easy to defeat as anticipated, and soon Carapace, Viperion, Pegasus, and King Monkey were heading back toward the school.

Cat Noir bowed to Ladybug. “A pleasure as always, Milady.”

Just as he turned to go, Ladybug said, “Cat Noir, wait. Do you have a second?”

“For you? Always.” Although he really did need to get back to school. He’d been lucky so far, but if he showed up to class too long after Marinette did, he’d have a hard time explaining it.

He followed Ladybug into the belfry of a nearby church. It was clean and well-maintained, which meant it was comfortable but also meant they’d need to be careful in case someone suddenly showed up.

Ladybug stood near the belfry’s half-wall, looking out over the city. Cat Noir stood nearby, waiting. They hadn’t had to use their special abilities, so they weren’t on that clock, at least.

With a deep inhalation, she turned to face him.

“That was quite the bracing breath, Milady,” he said, trying to offset the tension he suddenly felt. Was she going to tell him she’d found a replacement and was giving up her Miraculous to be a mom? Or maybe she was going to tell him that her baby’s father returned her affections and now they were a couple. Cat Noir suddenly felt nauseous with dread.

“I think I know the answer to this,” she said, “but I don’t want to assume, so I’m going to ask.”

He steeled himself for the worst.

“Do you really love me?”

Cat Noir was so stunned that she would ask—that she felt she even had to ask—that the truth burst out of him like a tidal wave. “Yes, Ladybug! I’ve always loved you! From the day we met, I’ve never stopped loving you! I only stopped telling you every time I saw you because you don’t feel the same way and I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable. But my feelings have never changed, Ladybug.” He moved closer—close enough to wrap her up in his arms if he would dare—and asked in a soft voice, “Does your question mean you’ll let me flirt with you again?”

Her lips curled into a smile. “I suppose I wouldn’t mind it, Kitty.”

Joy filled his heart to bursting. The impulse to pick her up and spin her around was very hard to fight, but he managed it because he didn’t want to overwhelm her and make her reconsider. So instead, he gave her a flirty look and said, “I knew you couldn’t stay away forever, Milady. My charms are too hard to resist.” He took her hand and planted a kiss on the back of it. She didn’t stop him or even pull away. Still hovering over her hand, he looked up at her. “Milady? Isn’t this the part where you push me away?”

The warmth in her eyes wasn’t anything like the challenging playfulness he was used to. “Maybe I don’t want to push you away.”

His heart just about stopped. His whole body stiffened, and he skittered three steps back in shock. _Who are you, and what have you done with Ladybug?_ was nearly on his lips, but he couldn’t find any breath to speak. He’d been deceived before, but he wanted her words to be true so badly—

She smirked at his reaction. There it was. That was the spark he knew. “Calm down, Kitty. It’s really me. Is it that hard to believe I might have changed my mind about you? Don’t tell me all that arrogance about your charms is just hot air.”

It sure sounded like his lady. He took a couple tentative steps closer. “Changed your mind? Ladybug, I’m not sure I understand. Exactly what are you saying?”

Her expression fell, sadness snuffing out the spark.

He came even closer. “Ladybug, what’s wrong? What happened?”

She looked down, and a tear spilled from her eye.

He touched her shoulder. “Is it about your baby’s father?” Cat Noir didn’t really want to talk about that guy, but maybe Ladybug needed to.

“Nothing much,” she said. “I already knew he loves someone else.”

Cat Noir’s claws flexed with the sudden desire to scratch the guy’s face off. “He hurt you. What happened?”

She shook her head. “It’s not his fault. He didn’t do anything wrong. He wants to be with the girl he loves, and I can’t blame him for that.”

“I know you love this guy, Ladybug, but—I’m sorry; if he thinks there’s another girl out there more amazing than you, he’s blind, deaf, and stupid.”

Ladybug straightened and forced the sadness away. “No, _I’m_ sorry, Cat Noir. You’re an amazing person. You deserve more than to be someone’s second choice.”

“I don’t mind, Milady.” He didn’t _love_ it, but he didn’t really mind. “Because you’re my first choice. And if the blindness of the boy you like gives me a chance to win you over, then his loss is my gain, and I’m not too proud to appreciate it.”

“I’m serious, Cat Noir. There must be someone who’d choose you over everyone else. Maybe not as your superhero self, but as your regular self. What about your baby’s mom?”

“Nah. Like I said, we’re just friends. Besides, she has a different guy. He’s really great, and they look really happy together.” _Even you think he’s great. You must, or you wouldn’t have given him a Miraculous._ But he couldn’t actually say any of that, since it was only a couple degrees from there to his own identity. “There might be some girls who like me on a surface level, but no one’s pining over me or anything.”

“Then maybe their loss is my gain.”

Cat Noir wasn’t sure he was hearing things correctly. “Milady, please have some compassion on a poor cat and explain what you’re trying to say before my heart explodes from all the hope it’s filling with.”

She stepped back to put a little space between them. “Sorry, Cat Noir. I didn’t want to give you the wrong impression. I’m not going to fall into your arms and promise my eternal love. The fact is, I’m not sure I’m even capable of loving anyone else besides him. But I want to try. I have to try. Because no matter how much I love him, he’s not for me. I want to find the person who is. And if you really love me as much as you say you do—”

“I do.”

“—then I feel like I owe it to both of us to find out if the person for me might be you.”

Happiness flooded through him with the strength of a tsunami. Smiling the biggest smile his face could make, he closed the distance between them and took her hand, holding it close enough to kiss. “You’re giving me a chance,” he said softly.

She smiled at him, her blue eyes warm and dazzling. “Yes, My Kitty. I’m giving you a chance.”

“You won’t regret it, Milady. I promise.” He kissed her hand and let it go. “Can you meet me tonight on the roof I wanted to meet you at last time?”

“You mean where you set up the candles?”

“Yes, Milady. I’d like to take another stab at that date, if it’s okay.”

She climbed onto the half-wall of the belfry, preparing to leap away, then looked back at him and winked. “It’s a date.”


	45. Chapter 45

“I still can’t believe I’m doing this, Tikki,” Marinette fretted, pacing around her room. The sun had set ten minutes ago. It was probably time to head out for her date. “Am I really going out with Cat Noir?”

“Why are you so nervous, Marinette?” Tikki asked.

“I’m worried that it’s a mistake!” Wasn’t that obvious? “He’s my partner. What if this doesn’t work out? What if trying and failing hurts our partnership?”

“Don’t be so pessimistic. You told Cat Noir you’d give him a chance. That includes not assuming failure before things even start.”

Marinette plopped down onto her chaise longue and wrung her hands. “I’m afraid I’m being too selfish, Tikki. Yes, it hurts to lose Adrien, and yes, I want someone to love me. But if Cat Noir tries his best to make me fall in love with him and I can’t, even without Adrien being an option for me, my partner will be hurt badly. Maybe even badly enough that he won’t be able to work with me because it’ll be too painful. And that will be bad for Paris. I’ve already failed the city once. I don’t want to do it again.”

Tikki floated down in front of Marinette’s face. “Marinette, you’re thinking too much. You need to get out of your own head and go see what Cat Noir has to offer.”

It was such strange advice coming from her kwami that Marinette laughed. “I’m surprised you’re in favor of this. Isn’t there a risk to our identities if we start getting closer?”

“That’s true,” Tikki allowed, “but I know you know the risks, and you’ll make the best decisions you can. That’s why I trust your decision to give Cat Noir a chance with your heart, and why you should, too.”

Marinette smiled and tapped Tikki affectionately on the head. “You’re right. Thanks, Tikki.”

She had to be careful leaving her house, since the rooftop Cat Noir wanted to meet her on was just around the corner and actually visible from her terrace. So she snuck downstairs and out the door onto the street before finding a secluded spot to transform. Then Ladybug circled around the building and swung up to therooftop from a different direction, just in case Cat Noir was watching.

The flat roof was set up exactly how she remembered it, with candles lining the railing and petals strewn everywhere. It was incredibly romantic, especially with the view of the Seine right in front of them and Notre Dame across the river. Cat Noir stood waiting with a red rose in his hand. As she took in the lovely ambiance, he smiled and came over to her.

He leaned in, kissed both of her cheeks, and handed her the rose. “Thank you for coming, Milady.”

“This is beautiful, Cat Noir,” she said, still soaking in the candlelit rooftop. It was a lot nicer when her feelings about it weren’t tainted by guilt and regret. “So, what did you have in mind for this date?” Ladybug didn’t exactly have extensive dating experience, so she wasn’t even sure what she wanted to happen.

“Dinner and conversation.” Cat Noir leaned in with a flirtatious smile. “Unless you had something else in mind.”

“Something like what?” she asked innocently.

His flirty smile faltered, and she saw the flash of a blush before he turned away. “Um, dessert! Which I also brought!” He picked up a large picnic basket to show her proudly.

Ladybug giggled. Cat Noir was so used to her rejection, he didn’t know what to do when she played along. That was . . . kind of sad, but also adorable and endearing. Thinking of her partner in those terms was strange and something she’d usually back right away from, but this time, she embraced the thoughts. Maybe there was more to him than she’d ever let herself see before.

Moonlight shone down on the world around them, lovely and radiant, casting everything it touched in a calming, silver beauty. Funny how it was only when the sun was gone that the moon really got to shine.

Ladybug walked over to meet Cat Noir by the piles of pillows he’d set up facing each other, and he gave her his hand to help her sit on the pile facing the Seine and Notre Dame. He took the other, facing her and a bunch of roof tiles, and began pulling items out of the basket.

“Why am I the only one who gets a view?” she asked.

Cat Noir paused in arranging the food and gave her a meaningful look. “Au contraire, Milady. I have the best view.”

She knew he’d say that, but she’d set him up because she figured he might need help getting his footing again after she’d flustered him with her last comment.

The food he laid out on a red, silk napkin was simple finger food: small sandwiches; fruit; and a tray of bread, cheese, and oil. There was also a box from her parents’ own bakery containing a cannoli and a cream puff.

“I wanted to bring something fancier,” he said, opening a bottle of sparkling cider, “but I didn’t know what time you’d get here, and I didn’t want to bring a hot meal only for it to get cold.” He poured the cider into two glasses and handed her one, then held his up for a toast. “To first chances.”

She smiled and clinked his glass. “I wasn’t expecting anything fancy. I’m not a very fancy girl.” She took one of the small sandwiches and started in. It was simple finger food, but the ingredients were high quality. She hummed in appreciation.

He chuckled. “I’m glad you like it. I put it all together myself.”

That probably explained why the sandwich triangles were cut at some strange angles. “Please tell me you didn’t go out and buy a silk napkin just for this.”

“Uh . . . ” he said uncomfortably, “it’s what we had.”

_His family uses silk napkins? No, wait, don’t think about that._

“Can you tell me something about yourself, Ladybug?” he asked between bites of bread and cheese. “I already feel like I know you so well, but there’s still so much I don’t know about you.”

“It needs to be that way, Cat Noir. We have to protect our identities.”

“I know you keep saying that, but why?”

_Because if you find out who I am, you might destroy the world._ “Because if we find out each other’s identities, we’ll have to give up our Miraculouses.”

“Says who?”

She sighed. “Do we really have to get into this again right now?”

“I don’t want to argue with you, Ladybug, but we’ll have to find out sooner or later.” He gave her a cocky grin. “And I’d rather know _before_ our wedding night.”

Ladybug choked on her cider. She sputtered and coughed. He was at her side in an instant, patting her back but also laughing softly. When she got her breath back, she laughed and pressed a hand against his chest to push him away. “Sheesh, Cat, don’t do that to me.”

“Sorry.” He didn’t sound very sorry.

“You sure are a cocky kitty, aren’t you?”

“I prefer ‘confident’.” He moved back to his pile of pillows. “I am serious, though. I know we’re meant for each other, Milady, so I don’t see the point in there being secrets between us.”

“But _I’m_ not sure. Not yet, anyway. And there is a very real potential for danger in exposing our identities, even to each other. I’m . . . I’m just not ready yet. Once it’s out, it can’t be taken back, so I need to be absolutely sure.”

He went back to eating. “I understand, Ladybug. So, is there anything you can tell me about yourself that won’t risk your identity? What do you like to do for fun?”

“Well . . . ” She considered it. Probably best to avoid anything too unusual. “I like video games.”

His eyes lit up. “A girl after my own heart. Which ones are your favorites?”

They talked for two hours about games and movies and school subjects and anything else that seemed common enough not to risk being a clue to their identities. It was a casual, fun conversation that felt a lot like the way she talked with Alya—except for the playful flirtations that they would drop in here or there.

When the food was gone and the candles were beginning to burn out, Ladybug stood. Cat Noir followed her up quickly like he meant to help her get up, but she was done before he reached her. The extra strength and agility from her superpowers meant she didn’t really need the assistance, unlike when she was without her powers. Thanks to her pregnancy, basic mobility was getting a little difficult for regular Marinette.

“Thanks for the date, Cat Noir. I had a good time.”

“Me, too. So, when should we schedule the wedding?”

She laughed, not caught off-guard this time. “Rushing things a little, aren’t you?”

He came to her and took both of her hands in his. “Not from my perspective. I’ve loved you for over a year now. I’d marry you tomorrow if you’d let me.”

The sincerity in his catlike green eyes staggered her. “You’re serious.”

“As a heart attack. I love you, Ladybug. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. And I’d like the rest of my life to start now.”

“But we’re only f—uh, teenagers.” She was fairly certain they were the same age, but it was best to avoid exact specifics.

“And we’re both about to be parents. We’ve been rushed into adulthood ahead of schedule already. I don’t see any point in pretending we’re still kids when it comes to marriage.”

Slowly and gently, she pulled her hands out of his grasp. “You have a point. I know one couple our age who’s engaged, and someone else who just rushed into a marriage earlier than they probably would have.”

He nodded. “Me, too. See, it wouldn’t even be that abnormal.”

“That being said, it means a lot to me that you’re so sure you want me, but I’m still just beginning to entertain the idea of wanting you. I need a lot more time to see if my heart can let go of the boy I’m in love with and . . . ”

“Change targets?”

“Exactly.”

“I understand, Ladybug. So, why don’t we see each other for a while and see what your heart tells you?”

She gave him a playful smile. “Are you asking to be my boyfriend, partner?”

He chuckled. “No, Ladybug. Not exactly. Make no mistake, my intention isn’t to be your boyfriend; it’s to be your husband. I’m asking if I can court you.”

Her mouth fell open. It was such an old-fashioned and mature thing to say, it sounded weird coming from her flirty, silly partner. But she was beginning to recognize that Cat Noir had a lot of depth she hadn’t credited him with before. And she did get some pleasant butterflies in her stomach at the idea of being courted. It was like a little girl’s romantic fantasy. “In that case, I . . . guess I could allow it.”

Cat Noir swooped in to hug her tightly. “Thank you, Milady.” Before she could return the hug, he pulled away. “Although it might be difficult to court you if I don’t know who you are or where you live or how to contact you.” He snapped. “I’ve got it. We can send messages through our communicators on days when we don’t see each other. If we both transform at night, that’ll let us check our messages, so we can stay in touch.”

“It’s inconvenient, but it is the best we’ve got,” she agreed, “since we can’t risk exchanging phone numbers.”

“Then look for a message from me tomorrow night, though we might see each other before then if there’s an akuma.”

The thought made her frown. “Speaking of which, Cat Noir, we can’t let this thing between us affect our work at all. We both still need to act exactly as we always do, all right?”

He winked at her. “Nothing’s changed for me, Milady. I’ll always follow your lead and protect you with my life. I don’t know any other way to act.” There he went again with the heavy words. “But are you going to tell the other guys?”

_Tell them what, exactly?_ “I’ll have to think about it. For now, I’d better get home.”

“Sweet dreams, Ladybug. I know mine will be.”

#

Adrien flopped onto his bed and let out the longest, happiest sigh of his life. “This is it, Plagg. It’s happening.”

“It’s not happening yet,” Plagg said, sounding grumpy, and began searching for cheese.

“It will.”

Plagg found a few pieces and floated over to Adrien before eating them. “You know, if you weren’t so tooth-rottingly wholesome, someone might think you were ruthlessly cunning. You’re lucky you’re just an idiot.”

Adrien raised up on his elbows and scowled at his kwami. “Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Remember to remind her of that.”

“Remind who of what?”

Plagg adopted a breathy, simpering tone. “ ‘Don’t be mad! I didn’t mean to! I’m just an idiot!’ Repeat that a few times so you have it memorized.”

Adrien sat all the way up. Plagg’s nonsense was really starting to spoil his mood. “Plagg, what on earth are you talking about?”

But Plagg just zipped away and disappeared.

Adrien flopped onto his back again. Whatever. It was only some of the nonsensical rambling Plagg did sometimes to annoy him.

With a happy sigh, Adrien remembered how beautiful Ladybug had looked in the moonlight and candlelight. _She’s really interested in me. The girl I love is really giving me a chance to woo her._ He drifted to sleep already planning their next date.


	46. Chapter 46

“All right, girl. Spill.” After a few days of Marinette acting very strange while insisting that nothing was the matter, Alya had come to her house and cornered her in her bedroom.

Her BFF was really not good at hiding things. “Alya?! What—what do you mean? Who has a secret boyfriend? Not me, that’s for sure!”

Alya’s jaw dropped. “No way. You have a secret boyfriend?!”

“No, I don’t! Who said that?” Marinette spun in her chair and tried to get back to typing a paper.

Alya strode over, grabbed the back of the chair, and spun Marinette around to face her. “Marinette, you’re totally holding out on me. Take a deep breath and start at the beginning. Who’s this guy, and why are you seeing him when you’re in love with Adrien?” An idea sparked which made Alya smile eagerly. “Unless it _is_ Adrien. But . . . no, why would you keep that secret? Is it Luka?”

Marinette’s panic subsided into resignation. “It’s not Luka. I told you how he pre-dumped me.”

“Yeah, but I was hoping he might come to his senses about that.” Not _much_ hope; it had been a perfectly understandable decision, after all. Alya took a seat on the chaise longue. “Out with it.”

Marinette scooted her chair closer and took a deep breath. “After you and Nino told us about your engagement, Adrien basically told me that he’d never love me and I should find someone who will.”

“He what?!” Alya shot to her feet, took out her phone, and sent a text to Nino that said, _Sorry, babe, but I’m gonna have to murder your best friend after all._

Marinette held out her hands like she was trying to stop an oncoming train. “Wait! It’s not as bad as it sounds!”

“How can that possibly be not as bad as it sounds?!”

“He . . . said it really nicely?”

Alya gave her friend an incredulous look and sat back down. Her phone dinged with a message from Nino: _I understand. I’ll visit you in prison._ That made her smile and helped her calm down enough to let Marinette keep talking.

“He said he can’t love me because he’s already completely in love with Kagami and doesn’t care if she’s having some other guy’s baby. He wants to be with her.”

Alya considered that. “He actually said he was in love with Kagami?”

“Well, he didn’t say her name, but who else can it be? They’re super close, I know _she’s_ in love with _him_ , and they have tons in common.” Marinette picked at a spot on her shirt over her baby bump. “I can’t hold it against him, especially when I never got up the nerve to tell him how I feel when I had plenty of chances before they even met. Losing him is my fault, not hers, and not his.”

Alya couldn’t exactly disagree with her on that point. She’d been trying to get Marinette to tell Adrien how she felt for almost a year before the baby added another complication to their relationship. Gently, she asked, “Are you really sure you still don’t want to tell him?”

“Pah! After he went out of his way to tell me he won’t ever love me? Not a chance. As long as he doesn’t know that, he’s still determined to be a good dad to our baby. I can’t risk making things awkward enough between us that he decides to distance himself from our son as well as me. I won’t do that to my baby.”

“I get it. Your priorities are different now than they were before. A lot more’s at stake.” Could this really be the end of the Marinette/Adrien saga? Cut off before it really even had a chance to start? How incredibly disappointing. But it sounded like there was a light around the corner. “So, how did Adrien telling you that lead to you having a secret boyfriend?”

“He’s really _not_ my boyfriend, Alya.”

“But you two are seeing each other? Romantically?”

Marinette blushed. “Yeah.”

Blushing about the new boy? That was certainly a good sign. “Then how does that not make him your boyfriend?”

“He specifically said he doesn’t want to be my boyfriend.”

Alya frowned. “You mean he’s a player?”

“No! Well, he _is_ quite a flirt, but I don’t think he’s actually a player. It’s just teasing. You know, banter.”

Alya was not reassured. “A super flirty guy wants to be romantically involved with you but not be your boyfriend. Marinette, I’m really worried that you’re on the rebound and making a bad decision. This sounds like a guy who could break your heart even worse than Adrien.”

Marinette shook her head. “No, no, I’m not describing it right. I mean, yeah, I don’t really know what he’s like around other girls, other than flirty, and I guess for all I know he _could_ have a bunch of girlfriends . . . ”

Alya smacked her forehead. “Marinette, girl, you need—”

“But I _know_ him. He’s not like that. I’m pretty sure.”

“This mystery guy,” Alya said. “Do I know him?”

“Weeeeeelllll . . . ” Marinette toed the floor to make her chair do a slow rotation. “If I told you that, it wouldn’t be a secret. But I think you would like him if you knew him, which you may or may not. And the reason he said he doesn’t want to be my boyfriend is because he wants to be my husband.”

_T_ _hat_ was a twist Alya hadn’t expected. “You just started seeing each other and he proposed? Is he serious?”

“I think he is.”

“Is he mentally ill?”

Marinette laughed. “That might depend on which mental illness we’re talking about, but no, I don’t think so. We’ve actually known each other for a while, so it’s not like it’s coming completely out of the blue. In fact, he’s . . . kind of been romantically interested in me for a while. But I kept putting him off because of Adrien. So, after Adrien said I should find someone who could love me, I thought . . . maybe I should give this other boy a chance.”

Alya’s racing heartbeat calmed down. “Okay, that doesn’t sound so bad. But if he’s a guy you’ve known for a while, then he probably _is_ someone I know, right?”

Marinette reached for Alya’s knee. “I know you always want to dig for answers, but please don’t dig into this, Alya. This thing with this other boy is new, and I don’t know if I’m going to be able to move on from Adrien at all. If this does end up going somewhere, you’ll be one of the first to know. If it doesn’t, it’s better for everyone if he doesn’t get involved with the rest of my life.”

Mysterious indeed. But Alya respected her friend and suppressed her curiosity. “All right, Marinette. I’ll leave it alone. Though I’ll also be eager to hear whatever you do want to tell me about your . . . If he’s not your boyfriend, what is he?”

Marinette tapped her chin in thought. “I think the word is ‘suitor’?”

Alya laughed. “Really?”

Marinette shrugged. “He said he wants to court me, and I told him he could.”

“ _Court_ you? Is he a hundred years old?”

Marinette giggled. “Of course not.”

“Is he a time-traveler?”

“Don’t be silly."

Laughing again, Alya got up to hug Marinette. It was hard to find a good angle, both of them with big pregnancy bellies, but they figured it out. “Are you gonna be okay about Adrien?”

“I . . . I think so.” Marinette let out a shuddery breath. “I still love him, and I still feel so _much_ when he’s around. But I’m trying to let him go. Trying to move on. To be honest, even though I’m not sure I feel anything more than friendship for this new boy, I’m really hoping he succeeds in making me fall for him.”

Alya gave her friend another squeeze. “Then I’m rooting for him, too. And I’m here for you, always, whether you end up with Adrien or your mystery guy or someone else or no one.”

“I know, and I’m counting on it.”

“So, do you want me to punch Adrien for you? Or give him the silent treatment? What does my BFF need here?”

Marinette let out a soft, bittersweet laugh. “Really, I just want us to all be friends.”

It was far more compassion and grace than Alya would have shown in the same situation. “All right. Friends it is.” She strokedMarinette’s cheek fondly. “He doesn’t deserve you, anyway.”

#

While Nino was working on his math homework, another text came from Alya, about ten minutes after the first. Nino stopped what he was doing to read a lengthy update on whatever had upset her about Adrien.

When he finished, Nino let out a breath and muttered, “Adrien, you dummy.”

Nino had noticed earlier in the week that Adrien’s mood was extra good. When Nino had asked about it, Adrien had gotten flustered for a second, then explained that he’d gotten to feel his baby move for the first time. Since Nino knew exactly what that experience felt like, he’d let the subject drop, satisfied that he understood Adrien’s good mood.

But apparently his best bud had another reason to be happy: a new girlfriend. A new girlfriend who _wasn’t_ the mother of his child and the girl who’d been crushing on him for over a year now.

There was nothing wrong with Kagami. Sure, she was a little strange, but so was Adrien in some ways. Super strict parents can do that to you. But she’d been nice whenever Nino had run into her. She was pretty, athletic, and smart. And she could actually talk to Adrien without freaking out. So yeah, it wasn’t that surprising that Adrien would fall for her.

But Nino had known Marinette longer than either Alya or Adrien. She was a great girl. He didn’t like seeing her hurt.

Then again, she hadn’t really acted hurt this week. Odd, yeah, but if she was trying to deal with a heartbreak, she was doing a great job of it, at least from the outside. And if she was starting to see some secret guy, maybe she really was finally moving past her crush on Adrien. And maybe that would be best for her.

Nino read part of the text again: _Marinette wants us all to keep being friends like everything’s normal, so don’t bring it up._ That was a relief. Nino didn’t want to have to choose between any of them. And he wasn’t good at all this meddling-in-other-people’s-romance stuff anyway. He still thought Adrien was missing out on a really amazing girl—and a really amazing _family_ —but it was Adrien’s choice. As long as everyone ended up happy in the end, Nino was glad not to have to do anything about it.

#

Something was different with Ladybug and Cat Noir. Ever since Viperion had joined the team in a semi-permanent way, Cat Noir had been more professional toward their team leader than he used to be when it was just the two of them. But something had changed recently. Cat Noir was back to being as flirtatious with her as he ever was. Depending on the timing, Ladybug either played along with him or told him to get his head in the game, which also seemed to be more like how they used to interact.

From Viperion’s point of view, it was a good change. They seemed more natural this way, and as a result, the whole team functioned more smoothly. So, why had they ever stopped, and what had made them go back?

The team had assembled and was currently hiding behind some bushes in a park.

“It’s been a while since Hawk Moth akumatized a woman,” Cat Noir noted.

“It’s been long enough since Fairy Grandmother that the pregnancies are obvious,” said Ladybug. “And she clearly isn’t pregnant.”

“What made Mrs. Mendeleiev get akumatized again?” Pegasus asked.

King Monkey said, “They reran the episode of Alternative Truth she was on.”

“Ouch,” said Carapace. “She must have gotten made fun of again.”

“I feel bad for her,” said Cat Noir, “especially since we could change all that by just telling everyone she was right. Except we actually can’t do that at all, but it sucks that _she_ has to pay to keep _our_ secret.”

“There’s no helping it,” said Ladybug. “We can’t let her just tell the world about kwamis.”

The four newer heroes looked at her in surprise. “Kwamis?” said Max. “That’s what she was trying to reveal on the show? How did she find out about them?”

Ladybug shifted from a crouch to sitting on the ground. “Somehow Cat Noir’s kwami got lured to her classroom with cheese, and she tried to get him on camera. She didn’t, since kwamis can’t be filmed, but she definitely saw him with her own eyes.”

While the others gave Cat Noir a hard time for losing his kwami, Viperion considered how interesting it was that Cat Noir’s kwami _somehow_ ended up in their school when there was other cheese all over Paris he could have gone after.

“She’s Kwamibuster now,” Ladybug said, waving a hand toward the other side of the bushes, where the villain was roaming around a hundred feet away, clearly searching. “Her goal is to steal our kwamis so she can prove to everyone that they exist.” Ladybug got to her knees to peer over the bushes. “And she’s got two kwami-extracting guns now instead of one, which makes her even more dangerous. We have to be careful not to get hit by those beams. If we get hit, she’ll steal our kwamis, and they’re trapped until we can free them. Things got pretty complicated last time because Cat Noir and I both lost our kwamis.”

Cat Noir appeared to find the memory more exciting than concerning. “Yeah, Ladybug had to call in a new hero to help us get our kwamis back. Her name was Multimouse, and she was really cool.”

“Cat!” Ladybug rebuked him.

He held out his hands. “What? I can’t tell them that?” To the rest of them, he added, “But Ladybug said we can’t use her again because I saw who she was under the mask by accident. I’m still trying to convince her it’s not a big deal. I know who Pegasus is, and she gave _him_ a Miraculous again.”

Ladybug shook her head impatiently. “We’re getting off-track. We shouldn’t need to call in any back-up this time because we’ve already got a team—and we know what we’re dealing with.” She proceeded to tell them her plan. “Okay, everyone ready?”

Viperion activated his Second Chance, and they launched their attack.

The fight went pretty well . . . for about a minute.

Cat Noir backflipped into a crouch, landing between Ladybug and Viperion. “Hey there, Bugaboo. After we defeat Kwamibuster, how about we grab some ice cream? Or maybe a movie?”

“Ask me _later_ , Cat Noir. Look out!”

A beam from one of Kwamibuster’s guns swung their way, and Viperion leapt to the left while Cat Noir grabbed Ladybug around the waist and the two of them jumped right.

Viperion perched on the top of a street lamp, observing the scene. _She didn’t reject him or pretend she didn’t hear him_ , he thought as he considered the fight. Across the street, Cat Noir made sure Ladybug was steady on her feet before bounding toward the villain. _Are the two of them dating?_

Getting distracted by his teammates’ behavior was a mistake. An instant too late, Viperion saw the villain’s kwami-stealing beam rush at Cat Noir’s back. There was no time to warn Cat Noir or try to tackle him out of the way. The beam hit Cat Noir. He faltered for an instant as he realized what was happening, then tried to reach a parked car to get some cover.

But only a breath later, Cat Noir’s transformation fell as his kwami was sucked out of his Miraculous, leaving an ordinary teen boy falling to his hands and knees on the sidewalk.

Adrien Agreste scrambled for cover behind a car and got out of sight, but the damage had been done.

_So, it is you_ , Viperion thought. Between the lost kwami incident he’d just heard about and the childlike glee with which Adrien had laid down some weak puns at the class party, Viperion had already begun to suspect his identity.

Unfortunately, Viperion wasn’t the only one who noticed.

Carapace stood frozen on the sidewalk like he’d stopped in mid-run, gaping at his best friend.

“Adrien?!” The voice wasn’t Carapace’s. It was high and feminine. Ladybug was also frozen, her face showing so much shock that a new suspicion began to tickle Viperion’s mind.

_This needs to stop now._ Viperion reached for his wrist. “Second Chance!”

He was back behind the bush with the others, about to launch their attack. Cat Noir getting caught had been a fluke—or, if anything, Viperion’s fault—so there was nothing to tell his team. He followed the others into battle again, just like before.

This time, he tackled Cat Noir out of the way in time, but the beam caught Ladybug instead. Still half on the ground, one arm around Cat Noir, Viperion looked toward her cry in time to see Ladybug turn into Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

The suspicion Viperion hadn’t even allowed himself to formulate yet was confirmed. Marinette was Ladybug. The girl he still loved (even if he was too afraid to give her that love) was Paris’s greatest superhero. How had he not seen it sooner?

No, right now she was a pregnant girl in the middle of a supervillain fight who was having trouble getting to cover. Viperion looked beside him to Cat Noir’s shocked eyes and gaping mouth.

For the barest fraction of a moment, the truth weighed on Viperion like a boulder about to crush him. But there was no time. Every second mattered right now, and his teammates were counting on him.

“Second Chance!”

It took three more tries before they were able to defeat Kwamibuster. When the battle was over and the magic ladybugs had restored things, Viperion walked over to where Cat Noir was flirting with Ladybug and she was teasing him back.

Viperion shook his head. _These two_. . .

Cat Noir stopped and turned to Viperion when he noticed him approach, his body moving smoothly into a casual lean on his stick. The difference in demeanor was fascinating. “Hey, Viperion. Good job out there.”

“Thanks. Can I talk to both of you for a minute?” _Or five?_

Ladybug frowned. “Is this about something that happened during the fight?”

“It is.”

“How many times did you have to use Second Chance?” she asked.

“Four.”

Ladybug’s expression grew serious as she grasped the possible significance of using that many do-overs with this particular villain. “Okay. Meet us on that roof after you feed your kwami.”


	47. Chapter 47

When Viperion got to the rooftop Ladybug had indicated, he found Cat Noir leaning in at Ladybug with a smile on his face that was nothing like Viperion could even imagine seeing on Adrien’s. But not everyone got a childhood centered around freedom and self-expression. In fact, Adrien’s had been pretty much the opposite. Watching the other hero, Viperion couldn’t help a small smile. Maybe Cat Noir was what Adrien Agreste would be if he’d been raised by Anarka Couffaine.

When Viperion reached them, Ladybug asked, “What do you have to tell us?”

Viperion reached to his wrist and twisted the snake back. “Second Chance.”

Cat Noir looked confused and pointed at Viperion’s wrist. “Why’d you do that?”

Viperion was not a violent person by nature. But he remembered how Marinette had clung to him at the wedding, fighting tears for almost an hour, and a burst of anger moved his arm without getting any complaint from the rest of him.

He smacked Cat Noir upside the head so hard, the other boy stumbled three steps forward.

“Ow!” Grabbing the back of his head, Cat Noir shot him a look of pain and confusion. “What was that for?!”

Viperion thrust a finger toward Ladybug. “She’s Marinette!”

Ladybug gasped. “Luk—Viperion! What are you doing?!”

Cat Noir couldn’t have looked more shocked if Ladybug had turned into a giant centipede in front of him. “Is that true?!”

“Wh-what? Of c-course not!” Her panicked, fidgety reaction was pure Marinette.

Cat Noir’s wide eyes went from her face to her belly and back. “Marinette?!”

Ladybug spun at Viperion, grasping for anger. “Why did you do that?! I gave you that Miraculous because I thought you could be trusted with it!”

Okay, that hurt a little. But it wasn’t like Viperion didn’t have a plan.

Cat Noir took a step closer to both of them, his gaze now shifting between Ladybug and Viperion as his expression grew angry. “Are you just playing with me?” he asked Ladybug in a low voice.

The unexpected accusation surprised the anger out of Ladybug. “What?”

“You said the boy you liked rejected you. You said you wanted to give us a real try. But if you’re Marinette, that means you’re with him.” Cat Noir pointed at Viperion.

Viperion pressed his palm to his forehead and let out a weary puff of breath.

Ladybug gaped at Cat Noir, her head swiveling from one hero to the other in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

Cat Noir barged into her personal space. “I know how you feel about him. Why would you play with my feelings if you never had any intention of giving me a chance?”

Ladybug was at a loss for words.

Viperion crossed his arms. “Marinette and I aren’t a couple.”

Since Ladybug wasn’t answering him, Cat Noir turned his anger on Viperion. “You _still_ aren’t? Why not? I know you care for her, too.”

Might as well be blunt. It wasn’t like any of this was going to last. “It’s because of her pregnancy.”

Raw fury flashed in Cat Noir’s green eyes, and he grabbed Viperion roughly by the shoulders. “Are you saying there’s something wrong with my baby?” he growled.

“What?!” Ladybug screeched.

Cat Noir’s face snapped to her.

“A-are you—” Ladybug stammered. “Are you A-Adrien?”

Cat Noir released Viperion and strode to her. “Yes. Please don’t look so horrified, Ladybug. I know Adrien makes you uncomfortable.” He pressed a hand to his chest. “But I’m still Cat Noir. I still love you.”

She slapped him. This . . . was not going well at all.

Cat Noir’s hand flew up to cover his cheek, and he gaped at her. “Why?”

Tears sprang to her eyes. “You love _Ladybug_?”

“Yes!”

“I’ve been right in front of you this whole time, and you never saw me for me! If all you love is the costume, then you don’t love _me_ at all!” Bursting into full-blown tears, she ran away.

“Ladybug, wait!” Cat Noir called, but Ladybug threw out her yo-yo and disappeared over the edge of the roof. Cat Noir turned blazing eyes on Viperion.

Viperion took a deep breath. That had obviously not been the right approach. He’d known that before he’d even started. But it had been a bit cathartic. He touched his wrist. “Second Chance.”

Time reset.

Cat Noir pointed at Viperion’s Miraculous and asked, “Why’d you do that?”

“Because I’m not sure you two will want to hear what I have to say,” Viperion answered.

Ladybug eyed him carefully. “Did you discover one of our identities?”

“Both.”

Cat Noir sucked in a breath.

Ladybug was less shocked. Her gaze softened for him. “I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. I’ve considered taking your Miraculous if and when it did, but that wouldn’t help anything. You’ve been akumatized before, so if it happened again, Hawk Moth could still find out our identities from you. And you’re a critical member of the team.”

Viperion smiled. “Thank you, Ladybug. I appreciate the trust you’ve put in me.”

“And I appreciate you telling us. I don’t need to tell you to keep the information top secret.”

“Of course. But that wasn’t all I had to say to you.”

Ladybug’s eyebrows furrowed. “What else is there? You know you can’t tell us each other’s identities.”

“Can’t he?” Cat Noir asked hopefully.

“No, Cat Noir,” she said, giving him a stern look. “Obviously he can’t.”

“Actually,” said Viperion, “that’s exactly what I want to do.”

Cat Noir’s face lit up, but Ladybug reacted like Viperion had uttered some disgusting curse.

Viperion held up his wrist to show them his Miraculous. “That’s why I activated my Second Chance. So that if you decide you shouldn’t know _after_ hearing it, I can take it back.”

She grew thoughtful. “I see.” She considered it for a few seconds. “I trust your judgment, Viperion. We’ll hear you out, and then I’ll let you know whether or not to turn things back. But we’d better hurry, since we don’t have much time to decide.”

Viperion nodded. “First, I want to ask: Are you two seeing each other?”

Ladybug’s cheeks turned lightly pink under her mask, and Cat Noir’s smile got even bigger. At the same time, Ladybug said, “I don’t know why that’s—” and Cat Noir blurted out, “Yep!”

Viperion smiled softly. “Good. Cat Noir, you love Ladybug, right?”

“Absolutely!”

“What do you love about her?”

Ladybug looked a little uncomfortable. “Viperion, do we really have time for this?”

“Please bear with me, Ladybug. Cat Noir?”

Cat Noir began counting things off on his fingers. “She’s brave, clever, beautiful, stubborn, caring, fun—”

Viperion interrupted him. “Do you know anyone else like that?”

Cat Noir cocked his head in confusion. “Why does that matter?”

“Just think about it. Is there anyone else in your life that fits that description?”

Cat Noir touched his chin in thought, then answered, “Not that I can think of.”

Internally, Viperion sighed. Cat Noir really was blinded by Ladybug. “Then let me back up and ask you another question: How would you describe Marinette Dupain-Cheng?”

A hitched breath came out of Ladybug, but it was quiet enough that Cat Noir didn’t notice. For a second, Cat Noir looked at Viperion in confusion.

“Marinette’s amazing,” Cat Noir answered, “but I’m not in love with her.”

“I know. Please answer the question anyway.”

While Cat Noir’s gaze fell to the ground in consideration, Viperion gave Ladybug a reassuring smile.

“Well,” Cat Noir said, “I guess I would say she’s smart, kind, funny, quirky, cute . . . She always stands up to bullies, and she’d do just about anything for her friends. She’s creative and talented—”

“How do you know all of that?” Ladybug asked him.

“Oh, uh . . . ” Cat Noir rubbed the back of his head. “I know her a little.”

“Ladybug,” Viperion said, “what do you think of Cat Noir?”

“He’s a wonderful friend. Brave, loyal, and silly. A bit too much of a flirt, and he has trouble being serious when he needs to, but . . . I’ve seen glimpses of maturity in him, so I know now that he’s not as frivolous as I initially thought. We make a great team, and he always has my back. I can’t imagine doing this without him at my side.”

Cat Noir was absolutely glowing from Ladybug’s words.

“You don’t love him, though,” Viperion said, instantly dampening Cat Noir’s happiness. “So why are you dating him?”

Ladybug was hesitant to answer. Viperion knew that she knew that _he_ knew how much pain Adrien had caused her. “Do I really need to tell you?” she asked quietly.

“Please, Ladybug,” he replied softly.

“I . . . want to try to love him. The other boy I liked . . . It’s not gonna happen. So I wanted to give Cat Noir a chance.”

“How is he different from the other boy you like?”

“He’s completely different. A—The other boy is sweet, gentle, kind, patient—”

Cat Noir cut in. “I’m those things, too. Or I can be.”

Ladybug gave him a sad smile. “I don’t want you to be anyone other than who you are, Kitty.”

“But I really—”

“Ladybug,” Viperion said, “if that boy were here right now, and you could tell him anything at all, knowing that my Second Chance could make it all go away if he reacted badly, what would you want to tell him?”

Pain scrunched up her face. “What does this have to do with anything, Viperion?”

“I know it hurts, but please. I am going somewhere with this.”

She sighed. “I’d tell him: I love you. I’ve loved you since we met. I want to be a real family with you and our son. But I don’t want to stand in the way of your happiness, so if you really can’t love me, I still feel like the luckiest girl in the world just to be your friend.”

Listening to her confession, Cat Noir’s face twisted with pain and sympathy. He drew closer to her, his hand moving like he wanted to reach out and embrace her.

“Cat Noir,” said Viperion, “if the girl who’s having your baby said that to you, what would you say?”

The pain and sadness in Ladybug’s face shifted into confusion . . . and a little bit of suspicion. She was starting to get it.

From Cat Noir’s reaction, it seemed to be a non sequitur to him. “She wouldn’t say that. She doesn’t feel that way—”

“If she did.”

Cat Noir frowned, thinking. “If she said that to me . . . I’d tell her that I had no idea that she felt that way. I’d say: I must have hurt you a lot, unknowingly, and I’m sorry for that. I love our baby, and I think being a family with you would make me very happy. But my heart yearns for someone else. And I . . . ” His eyes grew tight, and he shook his head. “I can’t—I don’t understand why you’re making me think of this, Viperion. Just imagining it feels like my heart’s ripping in two.”

“Because you love her, too?”

“Yes. In a different way than I love Ladybug, but yes. I would never want to hurt her, and if she really felt that way about me, then I’ve already been hurting her, and I’d have to keep hurting her by not being able to return her feelings. Besides, aren’t _you_ with her?”

Ladybug gasped.

Cat Noir jerked like he just realized what he’d said. “Um, I mean—”

“I know you know who I am, Adrien,” Viperion said. “You were the one who recommended me for this Miraculous, remember?”

“Oh. Right.” Cat Noir jerked again as he fully processed Viperion’s words. His head snapped toward Ladybug.

Her hands had flown up to cover her mouth, and her eyes were huge, already swimming with tears.

As Cat Noir stared at her, his mind clearly processing her reaction, Viperion said gently, “I’m not with Marinette. I love her, yes, but apparently not enough to take on the responsibility of being a father right now. Besides, she never really wanted me. She wants _you_.”

“Adrien?” Ladybug’s voice was so tight with emotion, she barely got the word out. One hand moved to cover her belly.

Cat Noir’s eyes followed the motion, widened, then moved back to her face. “Ma . . . Marinette?”

She nodded wordlessly as tears spilled out.

In an instant, Cat Noir moved to her with a smooth grace befitting both a cat and a model, and wrapped his arms tightly around her. “Is it really you?”

Ladybug clenched her arms around him and nodded against his chest. “Yes.”

Still holding her, he pulled his face back to look into hers. He smoothed one hand over her hair in a concerned caress. “Marinette?” he said in disbelief, beginning to cry. “Do you really love me?”

She nodded again and squeezed him tighter.

Viperion watched in satisfaction, happy for them even if seeing them together like this made his own heart ache.

“How much have I hurt you?” Cat Noir murmured to her.

She didn’t answer, so Viperion did. “You shattered her heart, Adrien,” he said as gently as he could say those words. “When you saw us dancing, it was only because she needed to be held while she fought back tears.”

Cat Noir wrapped his arms tightly around her again and buried his face in the crook of her shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Milady. Sweet Marinette. I never meant it.” He let out a small, bitter laugh. “I’m just an idiot.”

_Finally, he realizes it_ , Viperion thought.

Ladybug pulled away enough to look up at the boy in her arms. “The girl you told me you love . . . Me?”

“Yes. Yes, always. It was always you.”

“Still?”

“Even more. So much more now.” Cat Noir pulled back a little farther, looking down at her belly pressed against him. “The girl I love is having my baby. Marinette, I want to be with you. I want to be a family. Please say we can be a real family.”

All she could do was cry and nod.

It was a beautiful moment. Viperion wished he could let it go on forever. He checked his Miraculous. “I really don’t want to interrupt,” he said, “but we’ve only got one minute left. I can’t imagine why you would, but if you want me to turn back time, you need to let me know now.”

Ladybug stiffened and slowly pulled out of Cat Noir’s embrace. He looked at her in confusion. “Milady? Marinette? You can’t really be considering—”

Wiping away her tears, Ladybug visibly changed from a girl in love to a superhero team leader. She took a deep breath and let it out. “All the reasons for us to not know each other’s identities still exist.”

“Ladybug!” Cat Noir exclaimed. “You can’t be serious!”

“It’s too dangerous. We’re still in the middle of fighting Hawk Moth. And I’m only getting more clumsy, slow, and easy to catch. If Hawk Moth got to me, he could find out your identity. And it’s dangerous enough for our friends and family under normal circumstances, but with all the ones who are pregnant, they’d make even easier targets for him to use against us.” She placed a hand on his chest. “Now’s not the time, Kitty, but that doesn’t mean the time won’t come. When Luka turns back the clock, you’ll go back to trying to win me over, and I’ll go back to trying to let you. Sooner or later, we’ll find out each other’s identities again.” She took his wrist and pressed it against her belly. Blushing at the contact, she said, “We’ll be a family one day, Adrien. I know it.”

The angry lines in Cat Noir’s face smoothed out as he splayed his fingers over her belly, but he still didn’t look very happy. “I guess you’re right. But I hate to think that I’ll go back to hurting you with my blindness.”

“I can bear it, Kitty. Marinette isn’t as weak as she looks.”

He cupped her cheek and gazed at her with absolute love. “I never thought you were weak, Marinette. You’re one of the strongest people I know.”

“Fifteen seconds,” Viperion told them.

“Do it, Luka,” Ladybug said. “And don’t tell us any of this, except that you found out our identities.”

He stepped closer to them and looked sadly into her eyes. “You want me to watch you suffer, knowing I could fix things with a few words?”

She pulled away from Cat Noir enough to kiss Viperion’s cheek. “I’m sorry, Luka. Thank you for being such a good friend and reliable teammate. I’m counting on you.”

“So am I,” Cat Noir said. His eyes turned hard as emeralds as he locked them with Viperion’s. “If for some reason we don’t end up together—if I totally screw things up somehow—then tell us. Make it happen. I know you love her, but I also know you want her to be happy. Can I trust you, Luka?”

Viperion nodded gravely. “I won’t let you down.” With no time leftto spare, he touched his Miraculous. “Second chance.”

In an instant, all of that progress was erased. Viperion internally sighed.

“Why’d you do that?” Cat Noir asked.

_Because she relies on me,_ Viperion thought. It wasn’t the relationship he wanted to have with her, but it was enough. “I need to tell you both that during the fight with Kwamibuster, I saw both of your identities.”

Cat Noir gasped. Ladybug looked surprised and troubled, but not exactly shocked. “I see. Thank you for telling us. I know I don’t need to tell you, but it’s critical that you keep our identities secret, even from each other.”

“I know.”

“Aw, Ladybug!” Cat Noir whined.

She booped his nose. “You know we can’t risk it, Kitty.”

Cat Noir waggled his eyebrows. “Still set on waiting until our wedding night?”

She laughed and smacked him lightly on the chest.

_These two_ , Viperion thought, smiling fondly.

Cat Noir cocked his head at Viperion’s Miraculous. “So, why did you activate your Second Chance?” Curious as a cat, naturally.

Viperion’s eyes drifted away from them. “There was . . . something else I wanted to tell you. Something I thought you might not want to hear.”

Ladybug frowned. “What is it?”

He shook his head. “I already told you. You told me to go back and _not_ tell you.”

“Oh,” Ladybug said.

Cat Noir crossed his arms and leaned back. “More secrets?”

Viperion shrugged apologetically. “Ladybug was really certain that you two should not know what I told you, at least not now.”

“Which means it’s important,” Cat Noir groused.

Ladybug put her hand on his shoulder. “Cat Noir, if I said we shouldn’t know now, then I’m sure I had a good reason.”

“And what did _I_ think about it?” he asked.

“You agreed with her,” Viperion said, and Cat Noir blinked in surprise, “provided that I do tell you at some point, if certain conditions are met that make it necessary.”

“Oh.” His hands fell to his sides. “Well, I guess the other me was just me from a few minutes from now, so . . . I guess I have to believe myself.”

“Right,” said Ladybug. “Now that that’s settled, I’d better go. Bug out!”

She swung away, leaving Cat Noir and Viperion alone on the rooftop.

Cat Noir eyed him askance. “Whose identity got revealed first: mine or hers?”

“Yours,” Viperion said.

Cat Noir slumped.

“But if it makes you feel better, I already suspected you. You should be careful about punning in school. You enjoy it way too much.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better, no.” Cat Noir stroked his chin. “Though if I’m that transparent, I guess I _should_ be careful. I wouldn’t want the other guys to catch on, too. That’d make Ladybug really mad.”

Viperion’s eyes widened.

“Oh, right. I know about Nino, Max, and Kim. And Alya. I figured it out pretty easily.”

Viperion chuckled. “Sometimes I think Ladybug’s insistence on secret identities among the team is a hopeless cause.” _And for your sake, I hope it is._


	48. Chapter 48

A small, curly-haired woman sat on a blue mat in the school courtyard and addressed the gathered students. “Good morning, class. Welcome to childbirth class. Now that you’re all entering your third trimester, it’s time to start preparing your mind and body for delivering your child. Even if some of you end up needing to have a C-section, this information and training will still be beneficial to you. I am Mrs. Denise, a certified midwife, and I’ll be your instructor.”

“Good morning, Mrs. Denise,” chorused the students.

They sat facing her on blue mats, much like they did whenever Miss Bustier took them out for one of her breathing classes. Only in this case, they sat in pairs: each expectant mother with her birthing partner. The class had been slotted into their schedule for two days of each week. It was obligatory for any pregnant students and their chosen partners and was optional for any other students in their classes. Any students not attending the childbirth class had study hall. Since not all the girls in any given class were pregnant, they’d been able to combine some classes for the childbirth lessons. Marinette’s class had been paired with Marc and Mireille’s class.

Mrs. Denise smiled broadly and held her arms open as if she wanted to give them all a massive group hug. “Why don’t we start by everyone introducing themselves? Just say your names, and if you feel comfortable sharing, you can tell us the relationship between mother and birthing partner and the gender of your child.”

Marinette looked around the group. She already knew almost everyone, but the introductions were probably mostly for the teacher’s benefit. When she looked back at the teacher, the small woman gestured toward her. “Let’s start with you two.”

“Me?” Marinette squeaked. She was sitting in the front, so she shouldn’t have been surprised. “I’m Marinette.”

Adrien reached over from beside her to lay a hand on hers where she had it clenched over her knee. “I’m Adrien. I’m Marinette’s good friend and the father of her baby, and we’re having a boy.”

The words ‘good friend’ didn’t feel like a dart in her chest the way they once had. In the last week, after she’d accepted that Adrien would never love her (at least not romantically), things had begun to change inside her. The shift of perspective that being utterly without hope brought was oddly refreshing. She was still incredibly awkward and nervous around him at times—like right now, for instance—but the times when she could speak normally to him were increasing. Adrien was her friend, and now that she no longer nurtured a wish for more than that, she really appreciated the fact that he considered her a _good_ friend.

Adrien’s hand lingered on hers for another few seconds before pulling away. Her skin still tingled where he’d touched her, but she didn’t dissolve into a gooey puddle.

The next couple introduced themselves.

“I’m Alya, and this is Nino, my fiancé, and we’re having a girl.” They sat beside each other with Nino’s arm around Alya’s shoulders and Alya’s hand on Nino’s leg. Very coupley. Very natural. It was hard not to be jealous.

And on it went around the group.

“I’m Ondine, and this is my boyfriend Kim. We’re also having a girl.” Even though the childbirth classes were being given in every high school and college in the city, Ondine had chosen to come to Kim’s school instead of attending the one at hers. She’d said it was because Kim’s class was more accepting of the situation they were in, which made the whole environment more comfortable.

“I’m Alix. This is Nathaniel. We’re having _two_ boys,” Alix said, sounding slightly irritated. And also not clarifying her relationship to Nathaniel. Did that mean this situation had hurt their friendship so much that she didn’t consider him a friend anymore? They’d seemed all right on their group outing, but maybe something had changed. Marinette hoped that wasn’t the case and that Alix was just being curt.

Mireille was next and introduced her birthing partner as her mother, which Marinette had already assumed given the other woman’s age and resemblance.

Chloe didn’t speak up, so Sabrina said, “This is Chloe, and I’m Sabrina, her BFF!” Chloe probably still hadn’t contacted Pierre, but at least she was accepting all the support Sabrina offered.

The other two pregnant girls in Marc’s class introduced themselves and their birth partners. The students auditing the class from the sidelines didn’t have to introduce themselves, but Marinette knew them all anyway. The rest of her class was there, partly as moral support and partly because they all said they wanted to be ready to help if they needed to, if someone’s birth partner wasn’t available when she went into labor. Marc and Luka were there, too (even though this wasn’t the scheduled time for Luka’s class). No one else from Marc’s class sat in.

“Wonderful,” said Mrs. Denise. “It’s lovely to meet you all. Now, first we’re going to go over some basic information about what’s been going on in your bodies. Some of you may already have heard all of this from a doctor or family member, but you’d be surprised how many women have no real understanding of their own body parts or the processes that they’re used for. To say nothing of what men don’t understand about women’s bodies.”

Marinette blushed so hard, she thought she might start sweating. She didn’t dare look at Adrien to see his reaction.

What followed was like sex ed all over again—with less emphasis on the pre-conception details and more on the post-conception ones. It was half an hour of pure psychological torture . . . while also being extremely informative. If Marinette pretended that there was no one else in the courtyard except the girls, it wasn’t so bad. Although that was kind of hard to do with Adrien sitting so close she could practically feel the heat from his body.

“All right. That’s enough of that for today,” Mrs. Denise said finally, and Marinette heard—and participated in—a collective sigh of relief. “Now I’m going to demonstrate some simple stretches you can do to help you feel better and prepare your body for delivering your baby.”

_Stretching. Okay. This shouldn’t be too bad. How embarrassing could stretching be?_

Not that Marinette knew much about any kind of stretching. She didn’t really need to when her transformation gave her all the agility and flexibility she needed as Ladybug.

“Partners, why don’t you move aside a little to give the moms plenty of space,” instructed Mrs. Denise.

Adrien shifted to sit a couple feet away from her. Marinette took a deep, relaxing breath and tried to pretend he wasn’t there.

“First,” said the teacher, “let’s get into a cross-legged sitting position. Rest your hands on your knees in a neutral, comfortable position.”

Marinette’s confidence rose. She was already basically sitting like that, but she adjusted slightly to match what the teacher was doing.

Mrs. Denise continued. “Straighten your spine, lifting the crown of your head toward the ceiling, and relax your shoulders.”

Marinette did as she said. Things were getting a little more tense, but Marinette usually had pretty good posture anyway, so it was still mostly comfortable.

Mrs. Denise had them all hold the position for thirty seconds before telling them they could relax. “The next stretch is a squat, so you’re going to want to get to your feet.”

By the time Marinette unfolded her legs, Adrien was standing over her with his hand held out, ready to help her up. The gentle smile on his lips was utterly dazzling.

Her heart leapt and stuttered. _Stop it, heart_ , she commanded. _He’s not for you, remember?_ She took his hand (because she could hardly _not_ ) and let him help her up. Her fingers didn’t want to let go, but she made them do it.

Mrs. Denise demonstrated the new position. “Stand with your legs wide apart, like this. Then slowly lower yourself down as if you’re sitting in a chair, gradually going all the way down.”

Marinette eyed the teacher. That did not look like the kind of squats she’d seen people do while exercising. The stance was way wider. She wasn’t sure she’d even be able to keep her balance enough to do a squat like that.

“If you want, your partner can hold your hands to help you keep your balance while you do it,” the teacher offered helpfully.

_Oh, no._

Adrien was in front of Marinette in a moment, offering his hands. “Need any help? I’m here for you.”

Marinette tried to do a squat on her own, lost her balance, and grabbed his hands to keep from falling. They were so warm and steady.

“Careful,” Adrien said. “You don’t need to push yourself if you can’t do something yet. That’s why I’m here.”

She squeezed his hands tighter and murmured, “Thanks,” blushing and unable to meet his eyes. Watching the teacher’s demonstration, Marinette succeeded in lowering herself into a squat with her butt almost touching the mat and her feet wide apart.

She felt like a frog.

She was being a frog right in front of Adrien.

“Great,” the teacher said encouragingly. “You can stay in that position for however long is comfortable. When you’re ready to come up, place your hands on the floor and slowly straighten your legs.”

Marinette released Adrien’s hands to put them in front of her so that she looked even more like a frog. Then she followed along with the teacher’s movements, straightening her legs while her head stayed low. She lost her balance again and nearly fell forward, but Adrien caught her shoulders and gently nudged her back into position with a soft, “I’ve got you.”

After a few more seconds, Marinette got her legs straight so that her butt was in the air and her hands were on the floor. _This is fine. This is fine_ , she told herself, looking at Adrien’s orange sneakers, which were right in front of her face. _At least he’s not behind me. That would be even worse._

Moving slowly so she didn’t lose her balance again, Marinette placed her hands on her thighs and straightened her upper body. _Okay. I’m up. Mission accomplished._

“Good job!” said Adrien.

“Don’t praise me for standing up,” she muttered, secretly pleased to be praised by him for anything at all. “It sounds sarcastic.”

His smile didn’t falter. “It’s not sarcastic. I’m proud of you for everything you do in dealing with this pregnancy, Marinette.”

Her face flamed. “Th-thanks.”

Mrs. Denise’s voice interrupted their moment. “Next, I want you to get into a sitting position, then slowly move to your hands and knees.”

Somehow, Marinette resisted the urge to roll her eyes and groan. She accepted Adrien’s hand to help her sit, then looked around to see which direction everyone else was turning and started moving that way.

Adrien sat down cross-legged on the floor where he’d been standing—in front of her mat but technically at her side now that she’d turned.

Once she was in position, Marinette let out a tiny sigh. _And now I’m a dog._

The teacher went on. “I call this the cat stretch.”

_I stand corrected._

Adrien let out a tiny huff of amusement, though Marinette had no idea why. It wasn’t like he could hear her internal comments.

The teacher demonstrated the stretch, curving her spine up like a frightened cat, then back to neutral. Resigning herself to continuing to look like a total weirdo in front of Adrien, Marinette followed along. At least she was able to complete the stretch without falling over.

“Slowly move back into a sitting position,” the teacher instructed. “The next stretch is the butterfly stretch. Normally you’d want to do this with your back against a wall, but we’ll do it where you’re sitting for now. Go back into the same sitting position I showed you earlier, then put your feet out like this so your knees are up and spread.”

Marinette did so. Adrien had to scoot back a little so he wasn’t actually sitting between her feet but a little bit in front of her.

She tried not to pay attention to the fact that she was sitting with her legs spread in front of Adrien. It was just a stretch. Nothing weird about it. Although for a moment, she thought she saw some pink in his cheeks before he turned his head to watch the teacher.

“You want to bring your knees together,” said Mrs. Denise, “and slowly bring them down to the sides. You—or your partner, if you’d like—can gently apply pressure to the outside of your knees like this to give a little resistance and strengthen those muscles.”

They watched her demonstrate, and Marinette did one rep of the exercise herself without resistance. Then she tried to put her own hands outside of her knees, but without anything behind her, it was hard to keep the right position, so Adrien placed his hands there instead, lightly pressing against her legs as she pushed them down.

“How’s that?” he asked. “Too much resistance?”

“It’s fine,” she breathed.

She managed one rep that way, then the teacher let them all relax into a more comfortable sitting position.

“You’re all doing wonderfully,” said Mrs. Denise. “You can do these exercises at home or wherever’s convenient, a few times a day. We’re almost done, but we have one more left. Have you heard of Kegels?”

Adrien was still sitting in front of her, even though he was partially turned toward the teacher, so she could see his face pale.

Were Kegels something scary? She felt like she’d heard the term before, but she couldn’t remember what it meant.

No one wanted to answer the question, so either no one knew or no one wanted to share. The teacher explained that Kegel exercises were exercises one did to strengthen one’s pelvic floor muscles. It didn’t sound all that strange.

“I can’t demonstrate Kegels for you,” Mrs. Denise explained, “so when you’re home, just try to focus on the muscles of your pelvic floor, tensing and relaxing them. If you’re having trouble getting a feel for where those muscles are and how to consciously control them, talk to the doctor you’re seeing for your pregnancy to see if she can help you.”

Marinette tried to clench what she thought were her pelvic floor muscles. After a few tries, she realized why Adrien had reacted like he had. It suddenly became very difficult to look him in the eye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies to anyone who has ever taken/taught a childbirth class. I did do some research for this, but I couldn't find a video of a full class. And I figured, under these unusual circumstances, it might be a little different from the typical class anyway.


	49. Chapter 49

From a row of chairs off to the side, Luka watched the class with silent amusement. At the mention of Kegels, at least five boys had gone bright red. Adrien had gone white, then pink, then managed to recover himself by the time the teacher finished her explanation.

 _I sure am glad that’s not me out there_ , Luka thought.

From the chair beside him, his sister leaned over and murmured his name.

“Mm?” He turned his head to give her his full attention.

“I think Adrien thinks you and Marinette are a couple,” Juleka said.

 _I’m sure he does_ , Luka thought. “I’ve noticed that, too.”

“Are you gonna tell him you’re not?”

Luka had been wondering about that very thing lately. “Do you think I should?”

Juleka shrugged. “Seems like it, doesn’t it? If he thinks she likes you, he won’t figure out he’s the one she likes.”

Luka glanced down at his Miraculous on his wrist. “I got it, sis. I’ll . . . feel him out. It’s not always a good idea to interfere with other people’s love lives.”

She smiled at him from behind her bangs. “All right, Luka. We’ll leave it to you.”

After the childbirth class wrapped up, people picked up their mats, put away chairs, and made movements toward their next class.

Luka didn’t.

Luka went into the bathroom, hid in a stall, and waited.

His kwami, Sass, floated out from his pocket and asked, “What are you planning?”

“Juleka has a point,” Luka answered softly. “And if she’s thinking it, some of Marinette’s other friends probably are, too. But I’m not so sure telling Adrien the truth here would be a good thing. And I’m the only one who can tell him and then take it back if it doesn’t go well.”

Sass’s tail straightened in alarm. “You shouldn’t use your powers for personal reasons, Luka.”

“I’m not,” Luka reasoned. “Not _my_ personal reasons. I’m doing this for my friends and for the team.”

Sass considered it. “I suppose I see your point. Very well.”

“Thanks, Sass.” Technically, he didn’t really need Sass’s approval. The human owner of the Miraculous was the one in charge, not the kwami. But Luka really wouldn’t want to use his powers in a way that his kwami disapproved of if he could help it.

Five minutes after the next class started, Luka peeked outside the stall to make sure the bathroom was completely empty aside from him, then said, “Sass, scales slither.” In a flash of turquoise light, he transformed into Viperion. He twisted back the snake on his Miraculous. “Second Chance.”

It was strange not to be rushing off somewhere. Instead, he strolled casually out of the bathroom and through the locker room. Now that he’d activated his Second Chance, he didn’t have to worry about anything that happened in the next five minutes, as long as nothing prevented him from using his power to turn back time. And, aside from the other heroes in the building, it was unlikely anything in this school was strong enough to keep him from doing that.

Reaching the door of the locker room, he glanced absently toward the girls’ bathroom, and a very disturbing thought occurred to him. _Anything_ he did in the next few minutes could be erased, with no one but him remembering it.

While he had enough faith in humanity to think that most people, given that opportunity, wouldn’t go straight for murder and mayhem, he knew that there were a lot of things that a lot of people would do if that they knew they could never get caught and that it wouldn’t have any lasting impact on anyone else.

He had never felt like a particularly selfish person. In fact, ever since he was little, he’d always made an effort not to be. It was a discipline he’d practiced for so long, it came naturally and without thought now. But still, the fact that the girl he loved would trust him enough to hand him this kind of power was humbling and flattering in the extreme. He was still a teenage boy, after all. It was theoretically possible that he might have moments of weakness. But he knew he would never misuse this power, if not because of his own nature then because he would never want to let her down.

That being said, he wasn’t too noble not to enjoy the looks of surprise and confusion on the faces of a couple tardy students as he strolled into the courtyard and up the stairs. When he reached Marinette’s classroom, he knocked politely on the door. (Even knowing it soon will have not happened, he couldn’t be so rude as to interrupt class by just barging in.)

Miss Bustier opened the door and blinked at him in surprise. “Can I help you?”

“Can I borrow one of your students, Miss Bustier?”

“Uh . . . ” Miss Bustier was clearly not prepared for a superhero showing up to make such a request.

Viperion moved past her, getting several gasps from his teammates and a few of the others.

“Viperion?” Marinette asked, trying her best to sound like she didn’t know him personally. “What are you doing here?”

“Hi, everyone. Sorry to interrupt.” He put his hand on Adrien’s shoulder and began to physically pull him out of his seat. They were on a deadline. “I need to borrow Adrien for a minute.”

“Are you sure you don’t need me instead?” Marinette asked pointedly.

“No, this only concerns Adrien. No need for anyone else to follow us,” Viperion replied just as pointedly.

Adrien stumbled a little as Viperion pulled him down the steps. “Is this about my father? Did something happen? Or did . . . uh . . . did _she_ send you to get me?”

“I’ll explain once we get somewhere private.” _And away from Marinette’s sharp, analyzing eyes._

“Oh. Is it all right, Miss Bustier?” Adrien was walking under his own power now, but Viperion kept his hand on Adrien’s shoulder to steer him and keep him moving.

“If a superhero came all this way, I’m sure it must be important,” Miss Bustier answered. “Go on, Adrien.”

Viperion walked him out into the hall.

“What’s this ab—”

Not giving Adrien a chance to finish, Viperion scooped him up in his arms and leapt onto the school roof, then ran and leapt across another rooftop.

“Um, Viperion?” Adrien asked. “Are you kidnapping me?”

“The others might get curious and try to follow us,” he explained. _Especially her._ One more roof, then there was an alley where they could get some privacy. He dropped down and set Adrien on his feet. “I’m sorry for all this, but I need to talk to you about something.”

“As Viperion? You know, it’s probably not a good idea to single me out in front of the whole class like that. They might get suspicious.”

Viperion held up his wrist to show that the snake was not quite half-way down its counter.

Adrien frowned. “You used your Second Chance just to talk to me? What’s going on?”

“Adrien, I don’t have time to explain, so listen. I know you think me and Marinette are dating or that we will be dating soon.”

Holding up his hands, Adrien said, “I don’t have a problem with that at all. In fact, I’m really happy for you both.”

“Stop interrupting and listen. We’re not together. We won’t be together.” Viperion ignored the surprise in Adrien’s eyes and explained. “I’ve already told her that even though I love her, I’m not ready to be a father right now, and right now, being with her would mean accepting that responsibility. I . . . I don’t have it in me. I wish I did.”

Adrien’s expression fell, his whole body drooping. “You rejected Marinette? Because of the baby?”

“It’s not like that. It’s not her. It’s not the baby. It’s me. I’m the one who can’t handle it.”

Adrien slumped back against the wall of the alley. “You two would be so good together. You’d make her so happy. But I messed it all up.”

“Adrien, no!”

He wasn’t even listening. “I ruined Marinette’s chance at happiness.” Adrien squeezed his eyes shut, and tears leaked out. “How could I do that to her?”

Viperion grabbed him by the shoulders. “Adrien, it’s not your fault either.”

“It is, though!” Adrien barked into Viperion’s face, shifting from sadness to anger in an instant. “ _I’m_ the one who failed to stop Fairy Grandmother! _I’m_ the one who stood around and waited for the gas to hit us! _I’m_ the one who shoved a baby into her whether she wanted it or not!” Even as he shouted, his tears flowed freely. He planted his hands on Viperion’s chest and pushed.

Viperion staggered back a step and watched as Adrien jammed his fists into his eyes, trying to stop the tears. It was like watching a burning airplane corkscrew toward the ground.

“I’m not the only one who could make her happy,” Viperion said softly.

Adrien snorted. “If even you don’t want her when she has a baby, I’m not sure there are many other decent guys who would.”

“What about you?”

Adrien gave him a confused look. “What do you mean? I love Ladybug, and she’s finally giving me a chance. I—I can’t . . . ” His gaze drifted to the ground as he considered it. “I can’t give up on Ladybug, Luka. If I’d never met her, it would be different. But I already knew I wouldn’t be able to give Marinette the kind of love she deserves. Now that Ladybug is giving me a chance, if I gave that up now to be with Marinette . . . I’m afraid it would be even worse. I’m afraid I’d . . . resent her.” The thought made more tears spill from his eyes. “I can’t have that kind of feeling for her, Luka. I’d rather die.”

 _You love her so much, and you don’t even realize it_ , Viperion thought. _But maybe it’s not the right kind of love. Not yet._ “What if I told you she’s in love with you?”

The first answer Adrien gave was a contorted face and more tears. “You don’t mean that. Do you?”

The way Adrien looked, Viperion was almost afraid to say it. “I do.”

Adrien’s head fell, his shoulders shuddering with his breaths. After a few seconds, he said, “Then I’ll do it. I’ll leave Ladybug and be with Marinette. I’ll marry her and . . . ” He sucked back some tears. “It’ll be fine. I’ll . . . I’ll make her happy.” He sounded like he was trying to convince himself. He sounded like someone standing on a mountain of rubble and insisting that all it needed was a coat of paint.

The only way to fix this would be to tell Adrien that Marinette was Ladybug, and that was what she’d explicitly told Viperion not to do.

So, there was his answer. Enlightening Adrien about either Luka’s non-relationship with Marinette or her real feelings were both very bad ideas.

Adrien kept crying and muttering hopeless reassurances to himself.

 _I can’t watch this anymore._ Viperion touched his wrist. “Second Chance.”

And then he was back in the bathroom, thinking of other ideas. Was there anything at all he could do to help those two realize how they felt about each other now rather than suffering through months of more blindness and misunderstandings?

Barring that, could he at least get a more concrete idea of exactly how Adrien felt about Marinette? He said he didn’t love her like he loved Ladybug—but he definitely loved her in some way. Was it really true that he didn’t have any romantic feelings for her as Marinette and only Marinette, or did he have them and just not realize it?

After a few minutes of thinking, Viperion had an idea. It was completely ridiculous. He’d only seen it in shows and anime, not ever real life, so of course it was ridiculous. But it might tell him something.

It was also incredibly selfish. Wasn’t it? It had to be. But it really might tell him something useful that he could use to help his friends, to know whether to push them toward each other now or not.

And so came his moment of weakness.

He used his Second Chance again to give himself another full five minutes, then left the bathroom and headed for Marinette’s classroom.

He knocked and entered the same way as last time and was greeted with the same surprised gasps. This time, though, instead of going for Adrien, he addressed Marinette. “Excuse me. Marinette, right? I have a small issue that concerns you, if you’d be willing to have a short chat with me.”

Marinette’s eyes widened in alarm, probably expecting there was some urgent superhero business that was serious enough he had to take this strange approach. “Yes! Sure! Do you want to go outside?”

“No, it’s not that serious. If your teacher wouldn’t mind a very short further interruption in her class, we could step over here.” He held out a hand toward the left front end of the classroom.

Now confused, Marinette said, “Uh, is that okay, Miss Bustier?”

“If a superhero came all the way here to talk to you, I suppose it must be important.”

Viperion took Marinette’s hand and led her to the front of the classroom, as far toward the wall as he could get, but still right in front of Adrien. Miss Bustier kindly moved to the window to give them more privacy.

While there was a little bit of shifting around and whispering among the students, Viperion still had to speak very quietly to avoid Adrien or anyone else hearing him. He pulled her so close that her large belly nearly touched him.

He was careful to keep Marinette mostly facing the wall, angled so that Adrien would be able to see them but Viperion would keep a good view of the other boy.

“What are you doing here like this?” Marinette whispered.

“A little softer, please,” Viperion said. “We don’t want anyone to hear.”

She lowered her voice. “Then why didn’t we leave the room?”

“Because this wouldn’t work if we did that.”

“What wouldn’t?”

He held up his wrist for her to see. “I’m using my Second Chance.”

Her eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. “For what? You’re not supposed to use your powers for—”

“Personal reasons. Yes, I know. But as hard as this may be to believe, I do have a non-selfish reason for doing this. Do you trust me, Marinette?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Good. I want you to kiss me.”

“What?!” She stepped back in surprise.

Alarmed, Adrien shot to his feet. He was watching the two of them like a hawk.

_Good._

Viperion waited patiently until Marinette came closer again so they could speak without being heard. “I know how it sounds,” he told her. “But I’ll ask you again. Do you trust me?”

Her tongue darted out to swipe against her lower lip before she bit the moistened lip in thought. For an instant, her gaze flickered to his mouth before returning to his eyes.

 _I really do have a plan_ , he told himself. _I’m not just being selfish._ It was a little hard to believe it.

“Okay, Luka,” she whispered, so softly her voice was barely audible. “I trust you.” She reached up to wrap her hand around his neck and brought his mouth down to hers.

The kiss was soft and wonderful and . . . Viperion’s eyes drifted past her. Adrien was watching. Adrien was . . . smiling.

With a feeling like a stone dropping into his heart, Viperion straightened, breaking the kiss. “Thank you, Marinette. I found out what I needed to know.”

Her eyebrows slanted in adorable confusion as she took a half-step away from him. “That was it?”

He smiled softly at her. “The kiss was not my real objective, but thank you for it anyway. I’ll treasure it forever.” He touched his wrist. “Second Chance.”

Back in the bathroom, he let out a sigh. Then he detransformed and texted Nino, Alya, Max, and Kim, asking them to come to a ‘team meeting’ in the library after school.

When he arrived in the library after the final bell, the others were already there.

“Have you checked if we’re alone?” he asked.

Nino nodded. “Done, dude. Not even a mouse.”

“Good. Then let’s go over here.” He led them to a far corner of the library and gathered around a table.

“So, why are we meeting as ourselves?” asked Alya. “And where are Ladybug and Cat Noir?”

Kim let out a huge gasp and pointed at her. “You know about us?!”

“Uh, yeah, dude,” Nino said. “Alya’s Rena Rouge.”

Kim gasped again.

“Have you really not figured that out yet?” Max asked him.

“Anyway,” Luka said to get their attention, “Ladybug and Cat Noir aren’t coming.”

Alya squinted at him. “You keeping something secret, snake-boy?”

Luka suspected Alya may not have entirely forgiven him for withdrawing his interest in Marinette. “They’re not coming because they don’t need to know any of what I’m going to tell you.”

Now Kim pointed at him. “You _are_ keeping secrets!”

Luka winced. “Okay, sort of. But hear me out.” They all took comfortable stances and waited. “This isn’t about akumas or Hawk Moth or anything like that. It’s about Adrien and Marinette.”

Alya took a seat and leaned toward him. “All right, I’m listening. But if it’s about them, why did you explicitly only call Miraculous holders? Or former ones,” she added, sounding slightly annoyed.

“Because you’re the only ones who know about _my_ Miraculous, and I can’t really explain what I have to say convincingly without you knowing about it.”

Now Max and Nino were interested enough to take seats. Luka explained about the question Juleka had asked him and how Luka had figured it was probably on a lot of their minds. Alya and Nino nodded, but Max and Kim hadn’t apparently been aware that Adrien was under the impression Marinette was dating Luka.

“And now I still have to get a little cagey,” Luka told them, “because there are things I know that I can’t tell even you. But let’s just say that I have reasons for thinking that telling them those things at this time might not be in their best interests.”

“We figured,” Nino said. “That’s why we haven’t said anything.”

“But someone’s probably going to,” added Alya, “considering how many people care about Marinette and are watching all this play out, and how long it’s been going on.”

“Then it was good I acted first,” said Luka. “It occurred to me that I was the only one who could actually tell Adrien any of this and then _un_ -tell him if it went badly.”

Alya sat back, eyes widening. “No. Tell me you didn’t use your Second Chance to have a conversation about romance.”

“I used my Second Chance to have a conversation about romance.”

“The probability of Ladybug getting angry when she finds out you used your powers for personal reasons is ninety-five point seven percent,” Max said, holding a calculator for some reason.

“Please don’t tell her,” Luka said. “There are . . . reasons I can’t explain why it might be bad for her to know about this.”

Alya snorted. “Sure.”

“And it wasn’t exactly for personal reasons,” Luka explained, hoping this would sound as convincing to them as it had to Sass. Except he couldn’t tell them how it was really good for the team, too. “I used it to help people—or to try to, anyway. Isn’t that what Miraculouses are for? I wasn’t abusing it.” He hadn’t actually convinced himself that last part was a hundred percent true, but they didn’t need to know about it.

“He has a point,” Nino told Alya.

“Yeah, yeah.” She waved a dismissive hand. “Just tell us what you found out.”

“Without getting too much into the details,” Luka said, “it didn’t go well. In fact, it went really badly. If we tell Adrien I’m not with Marinette, he’ll want to know why. Then we’ll have to tell him it’s because I couldn’t handle Marinette’s pregnancy.”

“And Adrien will blame himself.” Nino picked up the thread. He knew his best friend well. “And then he’ll get all sad and try to fix it . . . ” Nino trailed off, looking to Luka to continue.

“He’s seeing someone else now, or starting to,” Luka began.

Alya cut him off. “Yeah, she told us about Kagami.”

Kagami? They thought he was seeing her? Luka didn’t correct their impression, since he could hardly tell them Adrien was seeing Ladybug. “He didn’t want to leave the girl he loves, and he was afraid that if he did so to be with Marinette, he’d resent her for it.”

Alya winced. “Ouch. Yeah, that would be bad.”

“And then, to see how he’d take it, I told him Marinette loved him. He said that if she really did, he’d marry her and make it work. Except he said it while crying and repeating it to himself like he was trying to force himself to believe it.”

Everyone at the table got quiet as all that sank in.

“So, we can’t tell him any of that,” Nino said softly.

Alya sucked in a breath and slammed her hands on the table. “Look, this is their lives. They’re both seeing other people now.”

“They are?” Luka interrupted. _He_ knew they were, but he was curious what Alya had heard.

Alya raised an eyebrow at him. “Regretting anything, Luka?”

Luka shook his head. “They’re both my friends. I want to see them happy, even if it’s not with each other. Did they tell you who they’re seeing?”

“Adrien hasn’t said anything,” Alya admitted, casting a glance at Nino, who shook his head to confirm that he hadn’t heard anything either. “But his good mood lately says a lot, and he told Marinette he was in love with another girl. But it sounds like you know about Kagami. Marinette told me she’s seeing someone, but she won’t tell me who it is because she doesn’t know if it’ll work out yet and she wants to wait and see how it plays out before introducing him to her friends.”

“That makes sense,” said Luka. It was unlikely either of them would give away the name of the person they were seeing, so hopefully the secret was safe for now.

Alya continued what she’d started saying before Luka had interrupted her. “So, even though we know they’d be great together, and even though Marinette’s having a tough time getting over him, meddling is obviously not going to lead to a big, happy ending with lots of cake and flowers. I say we just be there to support them in whatever they decide to do.”

Nino, Max, and Kim nodded agreement.

“There is one thing,” said Luka. When they were all looking at him, he said, “Those two need time to get to know each other better. Whether they decide to be a couple down the line or not, they need to get comfortable and familiar with each other because with a child, they’re going to be in each other’s lives for a very long time. So it might not be a bad idea to do whatever we can to encourage them to spend time together, even if it’s only as friends.”

“We kind of do that anyway,” Alya said. “But you’re right. I need to change my focus from trying to get Marinette to confess to him to trying to get her more comfortable around him for the sake of their son.”

“And,” Max offered, “if any of their other friends want to enlighten Adrien about some of these things he doesn’t know, we can try to find ways to talk them out of it.”

“Yeah! Go, team!” Kim said, thrusting out his fist into the middle of the table.

With a wry smile, Luka joined the group fist bump.

Luka didn’t tell them what he’d learned about Adrien’s reaction to Marinette kissing another guy. He hated to think of Adrien as one of those guys who’d be happy for his _friend_ all the way up until she married another guy and only then realize what he’d really wanted all along. In his heart, Luka felt certain that at some point those two would be a real family, just like Ladybug had said. But maybe they needed time to fall in love with the _other_ side of each other first.


	50. Chapter 50

A loud, insistent beeping woke Marinette up. She fumbled for her phone, turned off her alarm, and sunk her face into her pillow. As she was on the verge of drifting back to sleep, Tikki said, “You have to get up, Marinette. You don’t want to be late for school.”

“Ungh,” Marinette groaned. “I don’t want to go. I ache everywhere.” That was a slight exaggeration. She actually only ached in four or five places, most of them her back. For the past two days, her back had been aching. She was pretty sure she’d slept weird last night, because her back was even worse this morning.

“You’ll be all right,” Tikki coaxed. “It’s Friday. Only one more day to get through before the weekend. Take some medicine and you’ll pull through.”

Marinette let out a really long breath, stalling for time. “Fine.” Grunting, she pushed herself into a sitting position, feeling way too heavy and way too sore for this whole movement business. Looking over the edge of her bed, the floor looked so far away. “Tikki, spots on.”

Tikki let out a squeak of surprise before being sucked into Marinette’s earrings. The wash of power over Marinette felt so good. Instantly, her limbs grew stronger, the soreness eased, and she could actually move. She used the super strength and agility of her magical transformation to climb down the ladder from her bed and plant her feet solidly on her floor.

“Spots off.” The strength left her. The soreness came back. She sunk onto her chair.

“Marinette!” Tikki cried, obviously annoyed at being used for something so mundane. But when she came closer, her irritation turned to concern. “Are you all right?”

“I’ll manage. Just had a bad night. I kept aching, so I kept waking up, so I didn’t get much sleep, and my body still aches.” Scooting her chair over to her desk, Marinette looked for her bottle of painkillers. “There you are.” She grabbed a bottle of water she’d left by her computer and swallowed a couple pills. Hopefully they’d kick in soon and she’d be able to get through at least most of the day.

“This room wasn’t designed for a pregnant woman,” Tikki observed.

“No, it was not.” Presumably, her parents had assumed she’d be grown and out of the house before she had any reason why she wouldn’t be able to climb a ladder to reach her bed.

Sudden pressure on her bladder turned a mild need to pee into an extremely urgent need to pee. “Oh, crap!” Marinette hoisted herself up and hurried toward the trap door of her bedroom. Bending over was another thing that wasn’t as easy as it had been months ago. Fortunately, Tikki was stronger than she looked. The kwami flew over before Marinette reached the door and held it up for her. Marinette thanked her as she hurried down the stairs, trying not to stumble.

On her way back from the bathroom, she heard her dad’s voice. “Marinette, do you need any help?” When Marinette turned around, he was standing on the landing below her on the stairs, wearing an apron dusted with flour.

She was sure she needed help, but she was also sure she didn’t know exactly what kind of help she needed. “I’m fine, Dad. You can go back to the bakery.”

“All right, sweetie, but you call me if you need anything.” With heavy footsteps, he went back downstairs.

Marinette managed to get herself ready and walk across the street, never more thankful that her school was so close. She paused in front of the huge set of steps at the front entrance. There were so many of them. Had there always been that many steps?

As she stood considering them, Nino approached from her left. “Hey, Marinette. How’s it going?”

“Hey, Nino. Just reconsidering whether I really need to go to school today.”

He looked from her to the stairs and back. “Need some help?”

She wanted to say no, but she didn’t. “I’m just really sore and tired today, so yeah, some help would be great.”

He held out his elbow like he was going to escort her into a ball.

“Sorry,” she muttered as she took the support he offered.

“No sweat. You know you can ask any of us guys for help whenever you need to. We’re all in this together, right?”

She smiled at the reminder. “Right.”

Holding Nino’s arm, Marinette got up the stairs without tripping or falling. After a visit to the locker room, though, Marinette got stalled out at the staircase to the second floor.

“Want a lift?” asked Ivan.

She spun to see him standing right behind her, grinning. “A lift?”

He squatted lower and carefully picked her up in his arms as if she were a child.

“Whaaa?” she asked.

Before she knew it, Ivan was gently placing her back on her feet at the top of the staircase.

She processed what had happened and offered a belated, “Oh. Thanks, Ivan.”

Ivan gave her a nod, then went back downstairs, where Chloe was tapping her foot expectantly.

In the classroom, Adrien was talking with Nino, so Marinette didn’t have to do more than wave as she passed. When she was finally able to fall into her seat, she let out a groan.

“You okay?” asked Alya.

“Bad night,” said Marinette. “Couldn’t sleep much. Couldn’t get comfortable. Do you have any idea how many stairs there are in the world?”

Alya rubbed a hand on Marinette’s back, which felt nice but was a drop in the bucket to what her back needed. “Sorry, girl. I’ve had days like that, too. Anything I can do?”

“No.” Marinette slumped forward, propping her elbows on her desk and her chin in her hands. “Can I rent a personal attendant? Do they have those?”

Adrien turned away from his conversation with Nino to offer, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“I—uh—I’m not sure. I’ll . . . let you know if I think of anything, Adrien.”

“Please. You know I’m here for you, Marinette.”

When Adrien turned forward again, Alya nudged Marinette with her elbow and said softly, “You _were_ just asking for a personal attendant.”

Marinette flushed. “I was _joking_. I’m not gonna try to make Adrien wait on me hand and foot.”

Alya leaned in closer, her voice getting even quieter, but the teasing tone gone. “You’re seeing someone else now, right? So don’t make a big deal about it. This is his baby, too, and he wants to be as much a part of it as he can. He wants to help, so let him help. Maybe exposure therapy can help you get over your nerves around him.”

Marinette frowned in thought. “You have a point. I’ll think about it.”

#

During their last break before the end of school, Adrien asked Nino, “Do you think there’s anything I can do to make Marinette more comfortable around me? She’s freezing up less lately, but it seems like ever since this morning, she’s been a little . . . standoffish?”

“You heard what she said,” Nino answered, leaning his back against the courtyard wall. “She’s all achy today and didn’t sleep well. I doubt it has anything to do with you.”

Adrien relaxed. “You’re right. I must be overthinking it. But I know there are some times when I make her uncomfortable, and I can’t figure out what I’m doing to cause it. We’re having a child together, and I really wish she could get comfortable with me by the time our son gets here. I’m . . . a little worried about how often I’ll get to see him if she isn’t. Not that I don’t want a good relationship with Marinette for its own sake!” he added hastily.

“You should ask her if she thought of anything you could do to help,” Nino offered.

Adrien slumped against the wall next to him. “It’s been hours. I’m sure if she’d thought of anything she wanted me to do, she’d have brought it up by now.”

“Maybe she thought of something that she’s embarrassed to ask for.”

Adrien didn’t want to consider what sorts of things might fall into that category. “You really think I should bring it up again?”

“I do. Yeah, don’t be pushy about it, but like, give her another chance to say yes now that she’s had time to think about it. Ya know?”

After the last class of the day ended, Adrien turned to Marinette and casually asked, “Think of anything I can do to help?”

She blushed and needed a reassuring nod from Alya before speaking. “Uh, yeah, if—if you’re sure . . . ”

“Just name it, Marinette.”

Her shoulders scrunched up like she was trying to hide. She didn’t look uncomfortable, merely bashful. It was pretty adorable, really. “I could use some help getting around my house.”

“Is that all? Of course I can help with that!”

As they left the room with Nino and Alya, Adrien carried Marinette’s bag and lent her his elbow as they went down the stairs. He had to excuse himself briefly and go into the bathroom to make a phone call. If Marinette knew he needed to change his schedule to help her, she’d probably refuse to let him. So he called Nathalie where Marinette couldn’t hear him and told her to clear his schedule for the afternoon because he was helping Marinette.

“Adrien,” Nathalie said in an only slightly reprimanding tone, “you have responsibilities.”

“I know,” he told her. “And my biggest one right now is to Marinette and our baby. I’ll give her as much of my time as she needs. Tell Giuseppe I’m sorry about bailing on the photoshoot. And, Nathalie? Marinette’s probably going to need me even more for the next few months. She had trouble even getting around today.”

“Is she all right?” Nathalie’s obvious concern made Adrien smile.

“She said she was only tired and sore, so I don’t think it’s anything serious. How are _you_ doing, by the way?” It occurred to him that he hadn’t really checked in with her in too long.

His question seemed to catch her off-guard. “I’m . . . doing well, Adrien. Thank you. Your father has hired a personal nurse to attend me. She’ll be starting next week.”

“That’s great!” If Gabriel wasn’t going to attend her—and he obviously would do no such thing—at least he provided for her needs. “I need to go now. Marinette’s waiting for me. I had to sneak away because I’m sure she’d feel guilty if she knew I wasn’t already free.”

“Adrien.” This time when Nathalie said his name, her tone was soft.

“What is it, Nathalie?” he prompted.

“Nothing. Just . . . ” She hesitated to speak before continuing. “The way you’re handling this situation. Your mother would be very proud of you.”

Tears instantly sprang into his eyes, and he wiped them away. “Thank you, Nathalie.

He hung up before she could say anything else to make him cry, even though her words had made his heart feel thick and full. Nino and Alya were gone when he came back to the courtyard, and Marinette was standing alone, clutching her bag.

“Sorry for the delay,” he said, taking her bag. “Ready to go home? Or did you have something else to do first?”

She’d gone a bit stiff again. “Home’s good.”


	51. Chapter 51

Adrien and Marinette walked in silence to the bakery with her holding his arm for support on the stairs. When they entered the bakery, Marinette’s mom smiled at them from behind the counter. “Welcome home, sweetie. Adrien! How are you?”

“Hi, Mrs. Du—uh, Sabine,” he corrected. It was still hard for him to remember that they’d asked him to call them by their first names. “How are you?”

“I’m doing well.” The slight coolness from last week was gone. “Here to study with Marinette?”

“Not exactly, although that’s a good idea. We should probably do some of that while I’m here,” Adrien suggested to Marinette before turning back to Sabine. “Marinette’s not been feeling great today, so I’m here to help her however I can.”

Sabine frowned at Marinette in concern. “Not feeling well?”

“It’s nothing, Mom,” Marinette said with a wave. “Just back pain, tiredness, you know.”

“Ahh,” Sabine nodded. “It’s very nice of you to help her, Adrien. It did sound like she was having some trouble getting around this morning. You two go on up, and I’ll send Tom up soon with some snacks.”

They thanked her and went upstairs to the main living area. “Wait here for a minute,” Marinette said. “I need to go to the, um, the bathroom before we go up to my room.”

“No problem.”

As soon as she was gone, Plagg zipped out of his pocket and phased through the fridge door.

“Plagg!” Adrien hissed, yanking the fridge open.

“I’m hungry,” the kwami said, digging around in the fridge. He came up with a slice of Gouda. “I guess this’ll do for now.” Before Adrien could remind him that the cheese wasn’t his, he ate it.

“Stop eating other people’s cheese without asking,” Adrien whispered at him.

Plagg floated out of the fridge. “They won’t miss—” He stopped and looked to the ceiling. Then zipped upward and phased through it—into Marinette’s room.

“Plagg!” Adrien said as loud as he dared, panicked at the thought of Marinette finding his kwami in her room. But Marinette was still in the bathroom, and Adrien wasn’t about to barge up there uninvited like a snoop. He just hoped Plagg wasn’t getting into mischief in there (a faint hope, considering this was Plagg).

A couple minutes later, Plagg returned.

Adrien crossed his arms and scowled at his kwami. “I hope you weren’t making a mess in there or going through her private things.”

“I would _never_ do something like that,” Plagg lied. “I just heard a bug and thought I’d investigate. It’s safe now.”

Adrien had never seen Plagg chase a bug, but regular cats did, so maybe sometimes Plagg did it when Adrien wasn’t looking? He didn’t have time to ask, as Plagg zipped back into his pocket just before Marinette came back into the room.

“Ready to go up to your room?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“Do you want me to help you?”

“No, I can make it. But maybe . . . walk behind me in case I trip.”

They safely got Marinette up to her room, and she didn’t even trip once. Marinette went over to her desk chair and sank into it with a groan, then found a bottle of painkillers and took some.

Adrien set both of their school bags on the floor. “How’s the back?”

“Awful.”

“Mind if I try something?”

She raised an eyebrow at him.

“I’ve been looking up a lot of stuff on the internet. Including massage techniques to alleviate back pain during pregnancy. Want me to try?”

Marinette’s eyes widened, and her mouth opened and closed a few times. But when she shifted position slightly, she winced. “Yes, please.”

Adrien scanned her room, seeing what he had to work with . . . and noticed that all the pictures of him that he’d seen when that TV camera came into her room were gone. Even though, as she’d told him, she’d only had them up because she admired his father’s design work, maybe she felt weird about having them up when she was seeing Luka. It probably wasn’t because she felt like she’d gotten plenty of Adrien Agreste by now and didn’t want to look at his face anymore.

Yes, it was probably that first one.

He hoped.

“I don’t see a good chair we can use,” he told her. “I’ll go see if there’s one downstairs.” He found a folding chair in a closet and brought it back, setting it up near the chaise longue. “Here, sit backward on this.”

She heaved herself to the other chair like she was about to collapse under her own weight and took the position he told her.

He placed the pillow from her chaise longue between her front and the back of the chair. “Rest your arms on the top of the chair and try to relax. Are you comfortable?”

“Except for all the pain? Sure.”

He took a seat behind her on the chaise longue. “I’ve never done this before, so let me know if anything hurts.” With only light pressure, he ran his hand down her spine like he was petting a very large cat.

Marinette stiffened. “What are you doing?”

“Barely anything yet. Are you uncomfortable?” Maybe she was twitchy about letting him touch her. Maybe it made her think of . . . something she didn’t want to think about.

“N-no. I just . . . wasn’t expecting it.” Her body relaxed again.

Adrien went back to gently petting down her spine. _I wonder if I can get someone to do this to me. It looks nice._ At first, he only stroked down to about her waist. Even having his hands on her that much, even over her clothes, made him blush, and he was glad she was facing away from him so she couldn’t see it. But the instructions he’d watched had said to go all the way to the lowest part of the back, so with each long stroke, he moved a little lower, getting them both used to the idea. Marinette didn’t complain about it or react at all, so he took that to mean she was fine with it. A couple minutes in, after he’d been doing full-length strokes for a while, she even sighed happily.

He switched to a different technique: using his fingers to rub in short strokes down either side of her spine. Marinette let out a soft moan which he guessed meant she liked it, so he kept doing it for a while.

When he switched to pressing his fists gently into her back up and down the same area, right on either side of her spine, she started letting out the most adorable little mewling sounds he’d ever heard.

“Feel good?” he asked in case he was misreading her and those were sounds of discomfort.

“So good,” she said in a breathy voice that was half-moan, half-sigh, and all pleasure.

For a moment, Adrien froze as some kind of déjà vu triggered deep in the back of his mind, and his whole body got a few degrees hotter. Shaking his head, he shoved the feeling away, refusing to examine it, and continued the massage.

A few minutes later, he heard footsteps on the stairs, then the trap door opened and Tom stuck his head and shoulders up. He looked at Adrien and Marinette for a moment as he registered what was going on. Then he smiled and set a tray of cookies, croissants, and milk on the floor.

“Hi, Daddy,” Marinette said lazily.

“Hi, sweetie,” Tom replied. “You feeling better?”

“Mmm yeah . . . ”

“Good.” Tom watched Adrien’s massage technique, then nodded. “You’ve done your homework, son.”

Calling him ‘son’ was a good sign, right? Maybe Tom was over whatever he’d been upset at Adrien for before. “Yes, sir,” Adrien said.

“No need to call me ‘sir’.” There was definitely no anger in Tom’s tone or expression now. “Here are some snacks when you’re ready for them. How late are you planning on staying, Adrien?”

He hadn’t really thought about it. “I’m not sure. I don’t have any commitments for the rest of the day.” _Anymore._ “I thought I might do my homework here.”

Tom nodded as if this was the right answer. “I’ll bring you two dinner later, then, unless you want to come down for it.”

“Thank you, s—Tom. We’ll see what Marinette feels like,” Adrien answered, since Marinette seemed to be too dozy to do so herself.

That earned him another look of approval from her father. “All right. Let us know if you need anything else.” He left, lowering the trap door with a soft thunk.

The snacks looked and smelled really good, and Marinette seemed to be doing much better, so Adrien switched back to the gentle spine strokes for a minute or two before sitting back. “How you doing now, Marinette?” he asked softly.

She took in a deep breath and straightened, almost like waking from a nap, though she couldn’t have actually fallen asleep in that position. “Much better. Thank you.”

“My pleasure. What do you want to do now? Homework? Video games? TV?”

Marinette got up off the folding chair and moved to her desk chair, moving awkwardly but much more smoothly than before. “No, I have some sewing I want to do while my back still feels good.”

Adrien picked up the snack tray and held it out for her. “All right. I’ll get started on my homework while you do that, then.”

She took a glass of milk, five cookies, and two croissants. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I’ll leave if you want me to, but I’d like to stay if you’ll let me.” He set the tray on the end of the chaise longue where he could reach it, then picked up his bag to get his homework out.

“O-okay. If you want to.” She was already getting nervous around him again. The massage had definitely seemed to help, though.

For the next few hours, Adrien worked on his homework to the sound of Marinette's sewing machine, snipping scissors, and Marinette’s quiet muttering as she thought out loud. After spending so much time in his room alone, those constant reminders that someone else was there with him were soothing and relaxing. It was sort of like doing homework with friends at the library, but something about the cozy home environment made it all the more pleasant.

Marinette let out a long yawn-groan, and Adrien looked up from the chaise longue to see her hands stretched high above her head. Her back was to him because she was still sitting at the sewing machine. When she finished with her stretch, her arms flopped back to her sides.

“Done with your project?” he asked.

She jerked and spun around. “Oh! Adrien. Um, not quite.”

He smiled in amusement. She must have been so in the creative zone, she’d forgotten he was there. “How are you feeling?”

“Still pretty good, but I can finish it up tomorrow. I should probably get to my homework.”

“Do you need another back rub?”

“Yyyyyyyyyyyy—no, I’m good.” She was definitely tempted.

Adrien grinned. “Does anything else hurt?”

Her cheeks flushed pink. “Maybe my . . . feet?”

He got up and put his homework away. “Why don’t you work on your homework here?” he said, indicating the chaise longue. He waited until she got her homework and settled in with her back to the back rest and her legs stretched out, then sat at the other end of the chaise longue and took hold of her foot.

She giggled convulsively and pulled it away.

“I can’t rub your feet if you don’t let me touch them,” he teased.

Open war between nervousness and soreness raged on her face, her color as red as a bloody battlefield. Reluctantly, she held her foot out over his lap.

Gently, he took it in his hands and peeled off her sock, dropping it on the floor. “I haven’t actually done this before, either,” he admitted, “other than trying it on myself, so let me know if it hurts.”

He started rubbing his thumbs over the sole of her foot, and gradually her tension eased. She closed her eyes, leaned her head back, and let out a soft, “Mmm,” of pleasure.

Who knew the sounds a happy Marinette made were so lovely? He wanted to record them and set them as his ringtone.

_Or alarm clock_ , offered a small voice that sounded a lot like Plagg—but clearly wasn’t as the strange suggestion had come from inside Adrien’s head.

“Shouldn’t you be doing your homework?” he asked after a minute.

Marinette raised her head and gave him a worried look. “Shouldn’t you? You don’t have to—”

“I already finished. If you have everything you need within reach, just go ahead and work on your homework, and I’ll try to work the pain out of these feet.”

For the next ten minutes, as Adrien massaged her foot, Marinette tried to get started on homework but kept glancing over her book at him every five seconds. Eventually, though, she got used to what he was doing and was able to focus on her work. Adrien switched to the other foot, and Marinette didn’t even try to squirm it away from him . . . too much.

After a while, Marinette was deeply absorbed into her homework, her toes sometimes curling or feet flexing in response to the pressure from his hands without her eyes ever leaving her book.

At one point while she filled out a worksheet on her tablet, her book in her lap, she kept scrunching up her face so much that he had to ask, “Having trouble?”

She turned the tablet to face him. “I can’t figure out this one.”

Without pausing the massage, he inspected the screen. “It’s B.”

She looked at it skeptically. “Are you sure?”

He explained how he got the answer, and she huffed at herself and kept working.

An hour went by, and Adrien’s hands were starting to get stiff and his back was getting sore from not changing position. But it was totally worth it. Not only for Marinette’s sake, but also for his own goals.

It looked like the key to getting Marinette _emotionally_ comfortable around him was to keep her _physically_ comfortable. And as much as he felt guilty seeing it this way, the discomfort that her pregnancy brought allowed him to make her comfortable by relieving it.

The trap door opened, and Tom appeared. He smiled at them. “Dinner’s on the table. Do you want to come down or should I bring some up?”

Marinette stretched her legs, the foot Adrien was holding stiffening into a toe-point. “I wouldn’t mind coming down. I could use a break from homework.” She pulled her feet away from Adrien’s lap and moved to get up.

“Adrien,” Tom asked, “are you still joining us?”

“If you’ll let me, I’d be happy to,” he answered, helping Marinette to her feet. “Though I should probably go home after that.”

“Sounds good. We’ll wait for you downstairs.”

After Tom left, Adrien asked Marinette, “Feet feel better?”

“They do.” She smiled up at him. “Thank you, Adrien. You’re amazing. I mean—that was amazing. I’ve never had someone rub my feet before, and it really helps right now.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

#

After dinner, Marinette assured Adrien that she’d be able to handle getting back to her room on her own or with her dad’s help, and he went out to his bodyguard’s car. Marinette said goodnight to her parents, finished her evening bathroom routine, and went to her room.

Tikki popped out of hiding. “Are you feeling better now, Marinette?”

Marinette stretched her arms and then started changing into her pajamas. “ _So_ much better than this morning. Adrien has magic hands.”

“It’s a good thing you decided to move on with Cat Noir,” Tikki said, “or things might have gotten _awkward_. But you hardly spazzed out at all this afternoon!”

“Yeah.” Marinette climbed up to her bed. It wasn’t nearly as easy as it usually was (before she’d gotten pregnant), but she didn’t have major trouble. She lay down and tried to get comfortable, shoving one of her extra pillows between her knees. “But I was freaking out a lot on the inside. Adrien gave me a _massage_ and a _foot rub_. Really long ones. He’s so caring and attentive.”

Tikki landed on the pillow near her head. “You’re not thinking of backing out on Cat Noir, are you?”

“Of course not. My emotions might still go haywire around Adrien, but I know he’s with Kagami. I know he doesn’t see me as anything more than a friend. And I’ve promised to give Cat Noir a chance. I really want to love him, Tikki. Adrien may be kind and attentive, but Cat Noir actually loves me. Why can’t I just feel the same way for both guys that they do for me? I could return Cat Noir’s love and be with him, and I could be good friends with Adrien and raise our child happily together.” Whatever ‘together’ might mean when both of them were with other people. “Instead, I have to have these crazy intense feelings for Adrien and only love Cat Noir as a good friend.”

Tikki patted Marinette’s head. “Give it time. You might find things will change eventually.”

Marinette snuggled into her blankets. “I hope so. They’re so amazing, I wish I could give them both what they want.

Tikki curled up near Marinette’s cheek and murmured, “I think one day you will.”


	52. Chapter 52

The moment Cat Noir caught sight of the akumatized villain who’d been making mischief at a shopping mall, his heart nearly stopped.

_No. It can’t be._

The villain hadn’t noticed him or the other heroes yet. They were standing on the second floor of the huge atrium section of the mall, and the villain was on the bottom floor where an ice rink was the central feature. She wasn’t even doing much; just being a nuisance and scaring skaters off their feet. But Cat Noir recognized that pink and grey suit and hair done up in black buns.

“Multimouse?” he said in shock.

“It’s not her,” Ladybug said from beside him. They were all standing at the rail, getting a lay of things before jumping down to engage the villain.

Cat Noir dearly hoped she was right, but . . . “Are you sure? It looks just like her.”

“I know where the Mouse Miraculous is, and it’s not with _her_.” Ladybug pointed at the villain like she was offended at her very existence.

“All that means is she’s definitely one of Hawk Moth’s villains,” Cat Noir argued. “What if Hawk Moth akumatized Ma—”

Ladybug slapped a hand over his mouth before the others heard him. She leaned in close. “You’re missing something, Cat Noir. I know for a fact that Marinette’s pregnant. And whoever that girl is, she clearly isn’t.”

He looked again at the villain below. “What if the magic costume he gave her is disguising her pregnancy?”

“We’ve never seen him do something like that before.”

“But do you know he _can’t_?”

Ladybug rolled her eyes, getting impatient with Cat Noir’s extremely valid concerns. “Cat Noir, look at her face. She doesn’t look anything like Multimouse.”

Cat Noir did as she asked. The girl had dark hair and blue eyes, but her face did look different than he thought he remembered Multimouse looking. On the other hand, he’d only seen her for a short time, so his memory wasn’t extremely clear. The girl didn’t look much like Marinette, but Adrien had fought beside his own best friend several times before finding out who Carapace was under the mask. The fact that the villain didn’t really look like Marinette to him didn’t mean much. Still, Ladybug had made some good points, and she sounded completely certain. “I . . . guess you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right.”

“Hey, Ladybug?” said Carapace. “We gonna do this thing?”

Ladybug motioned them all to get back away from the edge, where the villain wouldn’t be able to see them. “I think we’ve got a Volpina situation. Hawk Moth is mimicking a Miraculous’s powers. This time, it’s the Mouse, which has the power of duplication. Expect that this villain will create copies of herself and/or shrink to a very small size. If she replicates, I want one of you on each copy. Viperion, you try to keep track of which one’s the original.”

“Ooh!” said King Monkey. “It’s like a shell game.”

“Y-yes,” Ladybug said, sounding surprised that he knew that.

“Awesome. I’m great at the shell game.”

“You are?”

“Yeah. My uncle used to play it with me all the time when I was a kid. He took so much of my money! I got pretty good at it, though.”

Ladybug put her hands on King Monkey’s shoulders and looked him in the eye. “This isn’t a game, King Monkey. Are you really good at it?”

“Sure I am, Ladybug.”

“Okay, then.” She looked to Viperion and got a nod. “King Monkey, you’re in charge of keeping track of the original villain when she duplicates. I couldn’t see from up here, but I’d bet she’s wearing a necklace. That’s probably where the akuma is.”

The team turned and launched themselves off of the second-floor walkway to the floor below. The guys landed on the floor, while Ladybug stood on top of a twelve-foot-high abstract statue from which she could see and coordinate the battle.

“Playtime’s over, Copymouse!” Ladybug declared.

The villain cackled at them. “No, Ladybug! Now that you’re all here, it’s just starting.” As predicted, Copymouse split herself off into five extra copies. Each copy lunged at one of the heroes.

“Sorry,” Cat Noir told his copy of the villain, dodging the first attack. “As much as I love a good game of cat and mouse, I don’t have time to play with my prey.” He swung his stick to deflect the copy’s next attack, then shouted, “Cataclysm!” Before the copy could recover from Cat Noir off-balancing her, he swiped at her necklace. It disintegrated under his touch, and the copy disappeared.

He turned his attention to Ladybug and found her warding off another copy with her yo-yo from her perch atop the statue.

“I’m coming, Milady!” he shouted, bounding toward her. He grabbed the copy attacking her by the jump rope tied around her waist and flung her across the atrium. “Are you all right, Ladybug?”

“Fine, Kitty.” She smirked down at him. “I knew I could count on you to catch that pesky mouse.”

“I think that deserves a chin scratch.”

“Maybe later, Kitty. No rewards until the job’s done.”

Cat Noir glanced around to see the others engaged with their own copies of the villain. The one he’d thrown had gotten to her feet and was running toward them, but King Monkey and the copy he was fighting were in her way. The running copy deliberately barreled into the one fighting King Monkey, the two of them rolling across the floor together. They got up, and one went straight back for King Monkey while the other continued her run toward Cat Noir and Ladybug.

“They switched!” King Monkey shouted. The copy he was fighting pressed her attack so hard with a flurry of kicks and punches, it was all he could do to hold his own while he shouted across the atrium. “Cat Noir, that’s the real Copymouse!”

 _Good_ , Cat Noir thought, curling his hands into claws. _Let’s finish this._ “If you’ll excuse me, Milady. This cat has another mouse to catch.”

He ran to meet Copymouse, fencing with his stick as she used her jump rope like a lasso, trying to tie him up.

After a few failed attempts, she grew visibly frustrated. “Stand still, you mangy furball!”

“Ya see, that’s the problem with cats,” he quipped, dodging her rope again. “We never do what we’re told.”

Copymouse gave up on the rope and came at him with her bare hands. In that instant, when he had a weapon and she didn’t, he could have— _should_ have—used the advantage to knock her down. But as she lunged toward him, her blue eyes bright with anger and excitement, he hesitated.

Was he _completely_ sure that this wasn’t an akumatized Marinette? Was he sure enough to risk attacking the girl carrying his child, no matter how small the chance of that was?

His stick slipped from his hand, and he put up his fists to defend against Copymouse’s attacks. She pressed forward, kicking and punching, and suddenly he couldn’t bring himself to do more than defend.

 _It’s not her_ , he told himself. _It doesn’t really look like her, other than the costume. It doesn’t make any sense that it would be her. Ladybug’s certain it’s not her._

But Ladybug had been wrong about things before. And Hawk Moth was always surprising them with what his powers could do; maybe hiding a pregnancy was within his abilities now.

He heard Ladybug shouting at him from across the atrium, telling him to get it together, and he tried to do what she said, but those doubts in his mind made him too afraid of the faint possibility of hurting Marinette to press the attack.

His ring beeped, reminding him that he was on a time frame. Between blocks and dodges, he darted a glance around the room to see that the copies were still keeping the other guys busy. His eyes landed on Pegasus dangling from the second story railing and stayed there a second too long.

Cat Noir felt a powerful blow to the middle of his chest that sent him crashing to the ground. Copymouse grinned and stepped forward, reaching to try to take his Miraculous before he recovered.

A yo-yo zipped out and looped around Copymouse’s wrist, yanking her away from Cat Noir. Ladybug jumped down from above, landing between them with her back to her partner. It gave Cat Noir the moment he needed to get to his feet.

“What are you doing down here?” he hissed at her.

“Saving you,” she hissed back.

Copymouse raised her arms and created two more copies of herself.

“Crap!” Cat Noir cried as the two copies went around Ladybug and attacked him from either side. He fought to reach Ladybug, to defend her from Copymouse, but the copies wouldn’t give him an opening to do so.

The glowing outline of a butterfly appeared over Copymouse’s face, indicating Hawk Moth was communicating with her—or that he was taking direct control. It was sometimes hard to tell which.

Copymouse frowned and held out her hand. “Give me your Miraculous, Ladybug.”

“Not a chance,” Ladybug said, swinging her yo-yo in a circle, ready to defend herself.

Cat Noir tried to jump between them, but one of the copies grabbed his belt and threw him back to the ground. When he got to his feet, he saw Copymouse lunge at Ladybug.

Viperion appeared out of nowhere and tackled Copymouse to the ground.

That usually only meant one thing.

Anger and fear collided inside Cat Noir’s chest, giving him a burst of energy. With a roar, he attacked the two copies and swiped at their necklaces, tearing them both off before they had a chance to defend. The copies disappeared.

Viperion struggled on the ground with Copymouse for another second before grabbing her necklace, yanking it off, and tossing it to Cat Noir.

He caught it, threw it to the floor, and crushed it under his heel.

A black butterfly flew out. Ladybug purified it. Copymouse turned into a dark-haired, blue-eyed young woman who definitely wasn’t Marinette.

Cat Noir wrapped his hand around Ladybug’s upper arm and pulled her away with a muttered, “Words.”

#

“Nooroo, dark wings fall.” Gabriel stood in his lair, grinding his teeth in frustration. “Why can’t that foolish girl just be reasonable?”

“What girl, Master?” Nooroo asked, feigning ignorance.

Gabriel glared at him. He did not appreciate being mocked. “It has not escaped me that my nemesis is a child. Or rather, a teenager.” The distinction was more important now than it used to be.

“You’ve never had a problem with sending supervillains to fight teenagers before, Master,” Nooroo pointed out.

“But not _heavily pregnant_ teenagers,” Gabriel ground out between his teeth.

“Whose condition you’re responsible for?” Nooroo’s voice was soft, but his words were sharp as glass.

“Why hasn’t she passed her Miraculous to someone else? Why won’t she just give it to _me_ so we can be done with all this?” Didn’t she know he didn’t have absolute control over the people he akumatized? His villains sometimes disobeyed him, like Copymouse had after he’d told her not to attack Ladybug.

“This Ladybug is very stubborn, Master.”

“Too stubborn for her own good.” Gabriel paced his lair, deciding what to do next. If Ladybug’s recklessness led to her or her baby getting seriously injured—or worse— _he_ would be blamed. And if Adrien found out . . .

 _I’ll have to try something different_ , Gabriel decided. And if that didn’t work . . . He clenched his jaw, already furious at the idea of what he would have to do next.

#

“What did you think you were doing?” Cat Noir demanded. He’d pulled Ladybug to a corner of the mall atrium where they could get a little privacy.

She yanked her arm out of his grasp. “Me? What were _you_ doing? I shouted at you for over a minute to stop messing around. You weren’t even attacking Copymouse, and everyone else was busy, so when she was about to take your Miraculous, I had to step in!”

Her words sapped some of his anger. Had it really been that long that he’d let himself hesitate? “I . . . I’m sorry. But you still shouldn’t have put yourself in danger.”

Ladybug’s anger, on the other hand, was still in full force. “I had no choice! We’re a team, Cat Noir. I’m not going to sit by and let you get beaten.”

“I could have taken care of myself! I wouldn’t have let her take my Miraculous!”

Viperion approached and asked, “Everything all right here?”

Cat Noir turned to him, needing confirmation to back up his side of the argument. “You had to use Second Chance to stop something from happening to Ladybug, didn’t you?”

Viperion looked uncomfortable.

“She got hurt, didn’t she?” Cat Noir pressed.

“Yes,” Viperion admitted.

Cat Noir turned back to Ladybug and pointed at Viperion. “See? Look at what happened! You shouldn’t have taken the risk.”

The news Viperion had just shared took the edge off of Ladybug’s indignant expression, but she didn’t give in yet. “You still haven’t told me why you stopped fighting back.”

“I—I . . . ” Now that he knew his fears had been exactly as unfounded as his mind had tried to tell them they were, Cat Noir felt foolish. But he needed to be honest with her. She deserved an answer. “I wasn’t completely, one hundred percent certain that Copymouse wasn’t Marinette.”

Viperion’s eyes widened with surprise.

Ladybug shouted, “What?! I told you it wasn’t her!”

“And I knew you were probably right. But the costume was the same. And I hadn’t gotten a really close look at Multimouse back then, and—”

Marinette howled with frustration.

Cat Noir explained it to Viperion. “Multimouse—the hero Ladybug pulled in during the first Kwamibuster fight, who Copymouse was imitating—was Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

“Cat Noir!” Ladybug snapped. “You shouldn’t just tell people identities like that!”

“Viperion already knows everyone else’s,” Cat Noir pointed out. “Besides, you said you wouldn’t use her again, so what does it matter?”

“It’s the principle—Never mind. Why didn’t you believe me that it wasn’t her?”

“I did. Mostly. But some part of me wasn’t entirely convinced, and I couldn’t manage to risk hurting her, just in case.”

Ladybug spread her arms wide in exasperation. “Why does it matter? Have other people you know gotten akumatized?”

“Yes.” _Most of them._

“And you never had a problem fighting them, right?”

“No.” _But this_ _is_ _different._

“Then what’s so special about her?” Ladybug demanded. “You barely even know her, am I right?”

Cat Noir cast a pleading look at Viperion. _He_ knew why Marinette was special.

“Ladybug.” Viperion stepped closer to her and spoke in a calm, reasonable tone. “Cat Noir made a good point earlier; we don’t know for sure that Hawk Moth’s magic _can’t_ disguise a pregnancy. And if Cat Noir knows Marinette, then that’s someone he _knows_ is pregnant. He’s also right that not looking like her wasn’t a solid reason why Copymouse wasn’t her, since it’s not always so easy to identify someone when they’re wearing a mask.”

Viperion was some kind of Ladybug-whisperer; even though all he did was repeat what Cat Noir had said, she calmed down.

He put a hand on her shoulder. “Cat Noir’s only worried for his friend. And for you. His actions came from a place of love.”

“You’re right,” she acknowledged. “I know. Cat Noir, I’m sorry for not trusting you to take care of yourself and for putting myself in danger.” To Viperion, she added, “And for making you need to rescue me.”

“I’m sorry, too,” Cat Noir said. “I should have trusted you more when you said it wasn’t her. Even though my mind was basically convinced, my heart kept saying, ‘What if?’ I shouldn’t have listened to it this time.” To Viperion, he said, “Thank you for saving her.”

Viperion gave the two of them a small smile. “It’s what I’m here for.”

Cat Noir spread his arms out to Ladybug. “Make up hug?”

Her lips curled, and she accepted the hug.

While he still had her in his arms, Cat Noir said, “One of us _will_ be glued to your side from now on. To protect you from yourself, if need be.”

She pushed as far out of his hold as he’d let her, which was not all the way. “Excuse me?”

He glanced to Viperion for confirmation. Ladybug followed his gaze. Viperion nodded sagely.

Ladybug sighed. “Yeah, I guess I deserve that.”


	53. Chapter 53

“Father,” Adrien said from across the breakfast table, “I’ve decided to move in with Marinette.”

Gabriel set down the tablet he’d been reading news reports from. “Explain.”

His son blinked in surprise. “Really? You’ll hear me out?”

“Not if you continue to waste my time.”

Adrien straightened. “Right! Sorry! So, uh, I’ll have to see if she wants me to first. But I’ve decided to make the offer. I went to her house last week to help her, and it’s getting hard for her to get around. She has a lot of stairs at her place. She even has stairs up to her bed and from her bedroom to the lower floor with the bathroom and kitchen. So if I was living there with her, I could help her get around when she’s feeling sore or tired, and I could help her feel better. Her dad’s there, but he’s working in the bakery and helping her mom, so I’m sure Marinette isn’t asking for as much help from him as she needs—”

Gabriel held up a hand to cut off his son’s rambling. “I get the idea. And how do you plan to address your other responsibilities?”

To Gabriel’s surprise, Adrien’s gaze hardened. “Like I told Nathalie, Marinette and our baby _are_ my responsibility. I’ll fit in my other lessons and work as I can, but if I even _think_ that she needs me, she comes first.”

The boy clearly expected a fight. Under different circumstances, Gabriel would certainly oblige. But Gabriel could no longer deny the enormous guilt he felt at the way the Fairy Grandmother fiasco had played out, nor his growing certainty that the best possible outcome for Adrien would be to marry the girl. And while Adrien still had a long way to go before he’d be a grown man, Gabriel had lately seen glimpses of maturity in his son which impressed him even as they unnerved him.

“Am I to assume from that declaration,” Gabriel asked, “that you’ve fallen in love with her?”

“What?” Adrien responded as if Gabriel had asked a completely unrelated question. “No. But she’s a very good friend and the mother of my son, so of _course_ I want to help her as much as I can.”

Gabriel took a sip of coffee to hide a very small sigh. Adrien really was still a child in some ways. A man would know his own heart better. But in that case, maybe this was a good—or even necessary—opportunity for the two of them to grow closer.

After a pause to take a bite of food and slowly chew and swallow, Gabriel said, “I trust, then, that I do not need to remind you to behave appropriately toward her while you’re staying there.” He wanted Marinette for a daughter-in-law _eventually_ , but Adrien still very much had an image to maintain and a certain standard of respectability that Gabriel expected him to meet.

Adrien blushed to the roots of his hair. “I know that! I wouldn’t—I—Father, you don’t have to tell me . . . ” Realization dawned. “Wait, are you saying yes?”

“Were you asking permission?” Gabriel asked, hiding a smirk behind his coffee cup.

Standing and planting his hands on the table, Adrien said, “No. But . . . ” The attempt at a commanding presence failed as soon as it had begun. “Thank you anyway, Father.”

“Check in with Nathalie every morning,” Gabriel told him.

“Of course, Father.”

“Tell her of any openings in your schedule, and she will work in lessons and photoshoots where possible.”

“Absolutely.”

“I’ll expect you home for a meal at least once every two weeks. You may bring Marinette if you’d like.”

“Thank you, Father!”

“Your grades had better not slip.”

“Not a problem. When I went over last week, I did all my homework while I was there, even though it was a Friday.”

“If I hear even a whisper of complaint from her parents—”

“You won’t!”

“You’ll need to put out a statement explaining the situation before someone notices that you’re living there and rumors start.”

“Right. Do you want me to talk to your PR people?”

“I’m sure you can handle it without their help. If you need assistance, you’ve already got someone to advise you.”

Adrien grinned. “You’re right. I do.”

“And of course you’ll need to convince Marinette as well as her parents of your plan.”

Suddenly, Adrien looked much less sure, though he tried to hide it.

“Once you do so, have one of them call either myself or Nathalie to confirm.”

“I will.”

Gabriel stopped talking and stared at his son blandly. After several seconds, he said, “You don’t want to be late for school.”

“Right!” Adrien rushed out the door, then leaned back into the dining room and gave Gabriel a very strange, almost sneaky look. “You like Marinette, don’t you, Father?”

“School, Adrien,” he reminded.

Adrien laughed softly and ran out.

Gabriel picked up his phone to call Tom Dupain.

#

“Adrien’s acting weird today,” Marinette whispered to Alya, keeping her voice low enough that the boy sitting in front of her wouldn’t hear.

“Definitely,” Alya replied. “He can’t sit still, and he’s been smiling and frowning all day. Is it possible to be nervous and giddy at the same time? He looks like a guy who’s about to—” Her mouth snapped shut over the next word.

“About to what?”

“Propose,” Alya said apologetically.

“What?” Marinette squeaked. She slapped her hand over her mouth, but Adrien was still engrossed in conversation with Nino, so she didn’t think he’d noticed.

Alya hurried to add, “I’m sure that’s not it, though.”

“But what if it is?” Marinette whispered. “What if he marries Kagami and moves to Japan and we never see him again?”

“He’s not going to move to Japan.”

“He might if he marries Kagami, which I’m sure he wants to do.” That whole ‘the girl I love’ speech definitely implied his goal was marriage.

Alya put a hand on Marinette’s shoulder to calm her down. “He wouldn’t leave you and your son like that.”

Marinette relaxed a little. “I guess he and Kagami could live in Paris.”

“Or he’s not proposing at all,” said Alya. “It was just a wild thought. I’m sorry I brought it up.”

But he would propose to Kagami eventually. Marinette really tried not to let that thought hurt so much. He wasn’t for her. It wasn’t her business who he married. In fact, as his friend, she should be happy for him whenever it happened.

As the dull ache in her heart lingered on during class, she tried to think of Cat Noir and his adoring gaze and playful flirts. There was a worthy guy out there who loved her and wanted to be with her. It helped to remember that.

After school got out, Adrien snuck up on her in the locker room and asked, “Marinette, can I walk you home today? There’s something I want to talk to you about.”

Her brain freaked out immediately. _Oh, no! He’s gonna tell me he’s marrying Kagami! I have to be calm. I have to smile. Congratulate him. Don’t start crying!_ Her lips moved to show her teeth in what she was really trying to make a smile but felt more like one of Kagami’s forced smiles. But he liked Kagami, so he was probably okay with weird, forced smiles. “Sure, Adrien,” Marinette said stiffly.

The whole way home, Marinette tried to psych herself up to not act devastated by the news. But what if that wasn’t what he wanted to tell her? What if it was something else? His dad was sending him to London for the next fashion season or Chloe and her mother were taking him to New York or maybe he’d changed his mind about being an involved dad altogether!

Luckily, it was a short walk home, so her brain didn’t have time to get too wound up.

They went in through the bakery, where her mom was helping a customer at the counter. “Tom!” Sabine shouted over her shoulder. “Marinette and Adrien are home!”

Marinette waved her hands, trying to shush her mom. “No, Mom, it’s not a big deal. Adrien just wanted to talk to me about something.”

“Oh,” said Sabine, then she shouted over her shoulder again. “Never mind, Tom! He hasn’t talked to her yet!”

What did that mean? And for that matter, why had Sabine said, ‘Marinette and Adrien are home’ instead of, like, ‘Marinette brought Adrien home’?

Marinette looked to Adrien to see if he knew what was going on. His body had gone stiff, his eyes wide, like he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t. When he noticed her looking at him, he smiled nervously and rubbed the back of his head. “Um, maybe we can go to your room?”

Sabine finished ringing up the customer and said, “Come down and talk to us when you’re finished, dears. And take a cookie.” She held up a tray of still-warm snickerdoodles.

Marinette did as she was told, then led Adrien up to her room. The other day, when Adrien had come over, Marinette had told Tikki to go up and take down any remaining photos of him while she was in the bathroom. She’d already taken down most of them after deciding to give Cat Noir a chance, but there had a been a few she’d still left up. She was tempted to put at least one back up, but the thought that he might make another surprise visit helped her resist that urge. Now she was glad she’d done so.

Marinette’s nerves made her want to pace, but her feet were sore, so she sat in her desk chair and asked, “So, what—what did you want to talk about?”

Adrien dodged the question. “How are you feeling? Want me to rub your feet?”

That did sound amazing right now, but the more he tried to stall, the more nauseous the idea of putting it off made her feel. “Right now, I really just want to know what you have to tell me.”

He scratched his head and sat down on the chaise longue. “Eh, okay. I was really hoping this would go over better with a reminder of how useful I am to have around.”

He was trying to butter her up. That meant he expected her to be angry at him. He was going to abandon her! “Adrien, please, just say it. Whatever it is, I can take it.”

“Um, okay, I . . . ” He took a deep breath and said the rest in a rush. “I think I should move in with you to help you during the rest of your pregnancy.”

Marinette’s mouth fell open. “W . . . what?”

“If . . . if you’re okay with it, I’d like to move in. Here. Until the baby comes.”

“That’s what I thought you said,” she answered dazedly. “So, you’re . . . _not_ abandoning me?”

“No!” He reached to grab her hand between both of his. “I would never do that, Marinette! But, I mean, I . . . I know you get uncomfortable around me sometimes, even though I can’t figure out why. But I think you could use some help around here, and I want to help you. And maybe we could also get over whatever it is that makes you uncomfortable around me. I think, if we could, it would be better for us . . . better for our son . . . ”

Get over it. Get over _him_. Exposure therapy, like Alya had said. If she really could, it would make things easier, when they were trying to raise their child. When she would have to see him marry Kagami.

Plus, there were days when she really could use the extra help, and there were still months to go.

But if he was here, how would she get away to transform? It was probably too big a risk to her secret.

Adrien was looking at her with such hope in his gorgeous green eyes. Would being around him so much help her get over him? Or would it only make her stay in love with him?

_He wants to help. He wants to be involved. As his friend, can I refuse him?_

She opened her mouth, not sure what answer to give him. “I—”

A video popped up full-screen on her computer, the face of a male supervillain appearing. She heard two more beeps, and she and Adrien pulled out their phones to find the same video forced onto those screens, as well.

“Ladybug,” said the villain, and Marinette’s heart leapt into her throat. Had Hawk Moth tracked her down? “Hawk Moth wants to talk to you. Meet me at the Eiffel Tower in five minutes. For every minute you’re late, I’ll drop a tourist from the top of the tower.” The villain grinned, the expression exaggerated by the cartoonish mask he wore. “There are quite a lot of them up here, so feel free to take your time.”

Marinette felt panic and relief at the same time. Panic because she needed to hurry or people might die, but relief because the message must have been to everyone’s devices, not just the ones here.

Thinking fast, Marinette threw her hand to her forehead dramatically. “Oh, I’m getting lightheaded again.”

Adrien jumped up and took her hand, guiding her to lie on the chaise longue. “You’d better lie down. I’ll, um, go downstairs to . . . watch the news on the TV down there so I don’t disturb you. I’ll come back and let you know when it’s over.”

“That’s so considerate, Adrien, thank you. Be sure not to come back up until it’s really over.”

“Don’t worry,” he said as he pulled open her trap door and headed down. “I won’t!”

As soon as he was gone, Tikki came out of hiding.

Marinette sat up and watched the trap door, listening to make sure Adrien wouldn’t come back right away. “That was . . . surprisingly easy. Good thing I’ve been playing the lightheaded game for a while now.” Maybe getting away to fight villains wouldn’t be as difficult to do with Adrien here as she’d thought.


	54. Chapter 54

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the late post today!

Ladybug met up with her team in front of the Eiffel Tower, and together they climbed to the topmost platform.

“I’m here!” she announced to the villain. “Release the hostages.”

The villain turned from the cowering group of hostages to face Ladybug, waving a hand behind him dismissively. The hostages bolted down the stairs until none of them were left on the platform.

Ladybug let out a breath of relief. “Thank you. You said Hawk Moth wanted to talk to me?”

A glowing outline of a butterfly appeared over the villain’s face. “Ladybug, thank you for agreeing to speak with me,” Hawk Moth said through this villain’s mouth. “I know you’ve been very busy lately. Preparing for a baby requires so many adjustments to one’s life.”

“Get to the point, Hawk Moth,” she growled, really not in the mood to be taunted about her pregnancy by the person who’d forced it on her.

The villain came closer. His eyes slid to Cat Noir. “You call yourself her partner, and yet you allow her to endanger herself and her child by continuing to foolishly resist me?”

Cat Noir’s hands balled into fists. “I _am_ her partner! And we’ll _both_ resist you until you give up!”

Returning his attention to Ladybug, Hawk Moth asked scornfully, “What kind of mother puts her child in danger as you’re doing?”

Even though she knew who it was coming from, she couldn’t help feeling the scorch of his words.

“Ladybug will be a great mother!” Cat Noir shouted.

“Perhaps,” said Hawk Moth. “If her child manages to survive. Why not give up your Miraculous, Ladybug? Why not hand it over to me, and we can stop all of this?”

Cat Noir took a step toward the villain, looking angry enough to tear into the guy. “Why don’t _you_ stop, Hawk Moth? You’re the one putting everyone in danger!”

“Do you really love her?” Hawk Moth asked him.

“I do!”

“How can you when you let her endanger herself like this? Is your Miraculous more valuable to you than her? Is it more valuable to you than her child?” The villain’s face feigned realization. “Ah, right. The baby isn’t yours, is it? Maybe you _want_ her to lose it. Maybe you want _her_ but not another man’s child.”

Ladybug was beginning to feel sick. Cat Noir’s face was red with fury. Carapace had to put a hand on Cat Noir’s shoulder to hold him back from actually attacking the villain. “You don’t know what you’re talking about!” Cat Noir shouted at Hawk Moth. “I love Ladybug and her baby! You don’t know anything about love!”

This was going nowhere. Ladybug stepped forward, patting Cat Noir’s other shoulder as she passed him. “Is this what you wanted to say to me, Hawk Moth?” she asked. “I’m not giving you my Miraculous, and you can’t taunt or berate or provoke me into doing it. We’re not going to give in to the likes of you.”

“Be reasonable,” Hawk Moth hissed at her. “You’re _pregnant_ , Ladybug!”

“Because of you!” she shot back.

“I’m well aware!”

She faltered. That response had been almost defensive, not gloating or mocking at all. Was it possible Hawk Moth felt bad about what he’d done?

“If the two of you give me your Miraculouses,” Hawk Moth continued, “I’ll never akumatize another person. You have my word.”

Carapace snorted, and Cat Noir spat, “Your word?”

“You’re endangering yourself and your child,” Hawk Moth said, ignoring the rest of the team.

“ _You’re_ endangering us,” Ladybug retorted.

“Who’s more important to you?” he asked. “Your child or the nameless citizens of Paris?”

“They’re not nameless,” she said. “They’re my friends and family. My child is important to me, yes, but they’re important to me, too. I’ll do what I have to in order to defend them from you.”

Hawk Moth was silent for a while, staring at her with the villain’s eyes. Finally, he said softly, “So be it.”

The glowing butterfly outline disappeared from the villain’s face, but before she could even get ready for a fight, the akuma left its victim, turning the villain back into an ordinary guy. Ladybug managed to catch and purify the akuma before it escaped.

“Looks like I got all dressed up for nothing,” said King Monkey.

They made sure the victim was okay and sent him down the stairs. Cat Noir was still fuming, so Ladybug went to him and laid her hand on his chest. “Forget about what he said, Cat Noir. He was just trying to scare us into giving up our Miraculouses.”

“It was certainly an unusual tactic,” Pegasus said thoughtfully.

“So, uh . . . ” Carapace said, eyeing Ladybug and Cat Noir, “are you two a thing now?”

Ladybug realized she was still touching Cat Noir’s chest and pulled her hand away. “Um, well—”

Cat Noir snatched up her hand before she could get it all the way away from him. The anger in his expression was quickly draining. “Can I tell them, Milady?”

She couldn’t really see any reason not to, so she nodded.

Cat Noir told the others, “Ladybug has agreed to let me court her.”

“ _Court_ her?” scoffed Carapace. When Cat Noir glared at him, he held up his hands. “Cool. Courting. Sounds great. You do you, cat bro.”

#

Gabriel paced in his lair, hands flexing with the desire to strangle some sense into those teenagers.

“She was not convinced, Master,” his kwami stated.

“I noticed that, Nooroo,” Gabriel ground out.

“What will you do now?”

“What other choice do I have?” He stopped pacing, removed his glasses, and rubbed the tight spot between his eyes. “I’ll not have that girl’s miscarriage on my conscience. I’ll have to . . . ” The words stuck in his throat. The very idea filled him with frustration and impatience. “ . . . go easy on them for a while.”

#

After detransforming a block away, Adrien was able to sneak back into Marinette’s house through the side door. He was still furious at what Hawk Moth had said about Ladybug, but he tried to put it out of his mind. Villains taunted him all the time, and usually he taunted them right back, but Hawk Moth had been far meaner and more personal than his akumatized villains usually were. Still, Adrien knew it wouldn’t do any good to let it get to him.

He reached the living room without spotting anyone, so he turned off the TV that he’d turned on before he’d left (in case Marinette could hear whether or not he actually was watching the news) and went up the stairs to her room.

“Marinette?” He knocked softly. “I’m coming in, okay? It’s over.” Trying to be quiet in case she’d fallen asleep, he lifted her trap door and peeked in.

Marinette was lying on the chaise longue. She lifted her head as he entered.

“The akuma attack’s over.” He came all the way into the room and went over to her. “Do you feel okay now?”

She let out a loud _whew_ and sat up. “Yeah, so much better. Thanks for keeping an eye on the news down there for me.”

“No problem.” He felt a twinge of guilt about lying to her, but it couldn’t be helped. She swung her legs down to the side of the chaise longue, and Adrien sat beside her, leaving enough space not to crowd her. “So . . . about me staying here. Have you decided, or do you need more time?”

Marinette bit her lip and didn’t look at him. “I probably could use the help. But I don’t want you to put your life on hold just for me.”

“You’re doing way more than that,” he told her. “And even though I can’t take on as much of the burden as you, I want to at least take as much of it as I can. We’re partners in this, remember?”

That brought a smile to her face, and she actually met his eyes. “If you’re really, really, _really_ sure—”

“I am.”

“Then . . . ” She averted her eyes, and her cheeks turned pink. “Okay.”

Happiness bubbled inside him, and he threw his arms around her shoulders. “Thank you, Marinette! I promise, I’ll be the best roommate you’ve ever had.”

“Roommate?” she asked, her voice muffled in his upper arm.

Adrien sat back. “Well, I—I thought I could sleep here, on your chaise. So if you need me in the middle of the night, I’ll be right here to help.”

She blushed bright red.

“Unless that . . . makes you uncomfortable? Sorry, I just thought it would be the most practical. But I don’t want to do anything—”

“No, no, it is!” she insisted. “Why _wouldn’t_ you sleep in my bedroom with me, all alone, all night?”

He felt his own face heating, but he tried to calm her down. “Marinette, I don’t want this to be weird. You have sleepovers with Alya sometimes, right?” She nodded. “Then try to think of it like that. Just two friends having a long sleepover. Totally normal, right?” She nodded again. “I know things . . . got weird between us because of Fairy Grandmother, but I think we’ve been doing a good job of moving past that, don’t you?” Another nod. “I promise I’ll be a perfect gentleman, and I won’t do anything to make you uncomfortable. And if I do, it’ll be by accident, and I want you to let me know so I can fix it. All right?” Nod. “I’ll give you another few minutes to think about it. But we should go downstairs. Your parents wanted to talk to us. I’m pretty sure my father must have called and warned them.” It was a little annoying that Gabriel hadn’t let Adrien handle it himself, but maybe there was some unspoken parent rule that you warned other parents when your kid was about to do something unexpected. (He’d have to get someone to tell him all the unspoken parent rules. Then again, how could he if they were _unspoken_?)

Marinette was still a little bit frozen, so Adrien quietly made his exit and hoped she wouldn’t change her mind.

#

Marinette stared at the trap door Adrien had gone through. “What do you think, Tikki? Is this all right?”

Her kwami flew over and hovered near her face. “I think this is a great idea.”

“You do?” Marinette asked in surprise.

“Mm-hm.” Tikki nodded. “Adrien really wants to help you. I think you need the help, and I think it’ll do him good to be able to help. And I think it’ll be good for your relationship.”

“You mean you think all this close proximity will help me get over him?”

“It’ll be hard to raise a child together if you keep slipping into Marinette-speak around him.”

Marinette smirked at her. “Not the most flattering way you could have put that, Tikki . . . but you’re right. I need to get used to him. I need to be comfortable around him. It’s been over a year, and my heart still goes haywire like a compass around a big piece of metal whenever he’s near. But he’s not for me, so I need to fix that. If he’s here all the time, my feelings will _have_ to get used to him eventually. Right?”

“It stands to reason,” Tikki agreed.

“But will you be all right with it?” Marinette asked. “You’ll have to stay hidden most of the time.”

“It’ll only be a few months.”

It was good to know that Tikki was okay with it. Marinette didn’t think Cat Noir would be overly crazy about the idea, but it wasn’t like Adrien had any intentions toward her or anything. If Adrien still thought about any of those supposedly non-gross things in his head (which he probably didn’t, because why would he think about Marinette when he wanted to marry Kagami?), then she hadn’t noticed it. (Except for maybe that time she’d caught him looking at her breasts, but it had only been that one time, and they _had_ been getting bigger, so even that was probably just natural curiosity.) Besides, it wasn’t like Cat Noir himself could come and help her get around, and she really could use the help.

Taking a deep breath, Marinette got up. Enough discussion; she’d made up her mind. _I can do this._


	55. Chapter 55

Thankfully, Marinette didn’t change her mind. Once she’d settled in on the couch, Adrien popped downstairs to the bakery.

“Uh, Sabine,” Adrien said, peeking through the door at her. Part of him still expected her to snap at him about manners, even though Sabine didn’t seem like the kind of parent to do that and she’d asked him to call her by her first name. “Marinette and I are ready to talk.”

“Oh, good! Let me just put a sign on the door that we’re closed.” She began to waddle around the counter.

“I’ll do it!” Adrien ran over to the door and flipped the appropriate sign, then came to her side. “Do you need any help up the stairs?”

“If I do, Tom will help me,” she assured him. “You go on back upstairs and keep Marinette company. We’ll be right up.”

If Tom and Sabine really did know what Adrien had needed to say to Marinette—and from her reaction earlier, he was pretty sure they did—then Sabine’s smiles and friendliness had to mean they were okay with it. Although Adrien hadn’t seen Tom yet, so he wasn’t sure how Marinette’s dad would feel about all this.

Adrien hurried upstairs and took a seat beside Marinette on the couch. “They’re on the way. Are you nervous?”

She was fiddling with her hands. “They’re usually okay with people being in my room, so it shouldn’t be a big deal. People are in there all the time.” She counted off on her fingers. “You, Nino, all my girl friends, Manon’s mom, Mylène’s dad, Jagged Stone, an entire film crew, Cat Noir—”

“Cat Noir, huh?” He really shouldn’t have said it, but he couldn’t help himself.

“There was . . . kind of a mix-up and then my dad got akumatized . . . ” She actually blushed. Maybe she still had a little bit of a crush on his superhero side? It couldn’t mean anything, now that she was with Luka, but the idea did still give him some warm fuzzies. She waved away any further questions. “It wasn’t a big deal.”

“Hey, I’ve had a superhero in my room, too. And not just when a supervillain was attacking.”

“Oh?”

“I caught Ladybug dropping off a present from one of my fan clubs once.” Maybe he sounded just a little bit smug about that, but it still thrilled him that his lady had actually hand-delivered a gift to his bedroom, even if it was from someone else. “And remember that big party? The one you crashed?” he teased, trying to loosen her up. He’d actually felt really bad about not inviting her and the other girls, once everything got going, but the guys had all apologized afterward, and the girls had forgiven them. “There were tons of people in my room then, some I hardly even know.” He propped his hands behind his head and leaned back. “For us, our bedrooms are more like . . . our apartments. They’re our whole main living spaces, so there’s nothing weird about sharing it with a friend. Right?”

She relaxed a bit. “Right. Nothing weird at all.”

Marinette’s parents came into the room and sat on the other side of the L-shaped couch. Sabine was still smiling. Tom’s expression was harder to read.

“So, uh . . . ” Adrien started, “I take it Father warned you already?”

Sabine smiled. “He told us you had an unusual plan for helping Marinette during her third trimester.”

Adrien shrugged. “It’s really not that unusual, is it? She needs some help getting around and getting comfortable. Mr. Dupain—Tom—you’re already busy helping your wife. It made sense that I should be here to help Marinette. If you’re all okay with it.”

“Marinette,” Sabine said, “how do you feel about this plan of his?”

“I—I think it’s a good idea. I’m doing pretty well most days, but there are some days that are rough. You and Dad are already so busy; you shouldn’t have to take time to help me with basic stuff. I know you’ve got enough to handle with your own pregnancy.”

“You’re really okay with this, sweetheart?” asked Tom.

“Sure,” Marinette said. It sounded a little bit forced. “Like Adrien said, it’s just a friend staying over. Alya does it all the time.”

Sabine gave Marinette some kind of secret look that Adrien didn’t know how to interpret. “If you’re really fine with it, then we’re fine with it, too.”

Adrien perked up. “Really?”

“Of course, Adrien,” said Sabine. “You’re a sweet, responsible boy, and we know we can trust you. It will be a pleasure to have you here. As long as you’re staying here, I want you to think of this as your home.”

Adrien blinked moisture out of his eyes. “Thank you. I’m really looking forward to staying here. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do for you, as well. I don’t want to be any kind of a burden or imposition.”

“We appreciate that, son,” said Tom. “Have the two of you worked out exactly what the arrangements will be?”

Glancing beside him at Marinette, Adrien answered. “Sort of. I was thinking I could just sleep on her chaise longue. That way I could be right there whenever she needs me. And we’d walk to school and back together, of course. I made sure I won’t have my usual busy schedule, so Marinette can have as much of my time as she needs, though I don’t want her to feel like I’m crowding her, either. Whenever she wants time to herself, I can find things to keep busy. Father wants me to still fit in lessons and photoshoots occasionally if I can, but I made sure he knows that Marinette comes first.”

“Does that sound all right with you, Marinette?” Tom asked.

Marinette nodded.

“All right, then,” Sabine said, still smiling. “Marinette, why don’t we go up and see if anything in your room needs to be straightened out. And Adrien, I’ll call your father to let him know the plan. You’ll probably want to go back to your house to get some things, won’t you?”

“Yes, I do.” He hadn’t wanted to just show up at Marinette’s place with a bag already packed. “I’ll text my bodyguard to pick me up. I’m giving Juleka and Marc another modeling lesson in half an hour, but I’ll come back after that’s all done.”

Sabine stood and gestured her daughter along with her. Before the two women left, Sabine added, “Be sure not to eat too much before dinner.”

As they went up the stairs to Marinette’s room, Adrien took his phone out to text his bodyguard. When he looked up again, he found Tom watching him, his elbows propped on his knees.

Adrien got the distinct impression that they were about to have another talk.

Tom stood, looking absolutely massive from this angle, and said, “Adrien, why don’t you come with me for a minute?”

Adrien gulped and stood. Tom was still massive. Adrien silently followed him downstairs to one of the other rooms.

“This is a very peculiar development,” Tom said. He sounded calm, which was good.

“Yes, sir. I mean, uh, Tom?” Was this a first name situation or not?

“I know you would never do anything inappropriate,” Tom said.

“No! No, of course not!”

“Because if you did, I would be very disappointed.”

And he would probably express that disappointment with his fists. (Okay, maybe not, but after Weredad had pummeled him into utter uselessness, he was a touch wary of Tom’s ‘great big punches’.) “I promise, sir, I would never do anything inappropriate with Marinette.” He winced. “Not _willingly_ , at least.”

“So, the thought’s never even crossed your mind?” Tom asked.

Adrien looked at the floor, knowing the heat in his face gave him away. In a small voice, he said, “I try really hard not to let it.”

Tom sighed. “Adrien, I know what it’s like to be a fifteen-year-old boy. And I remember at exactly what point Fairy Grandmother’s mind control wore off.”

Adrien felt like he might burst into flames at any second. “I really try my best not to think about it. I honestly just want to be the best friend to Marinette and the best dad to our baby that I can be. I would never do anything to take advantage of her.”

“I believe you, son. But I’m not sure you quite grasp the situation.”

Adrien had considered it thoroughly before bringing it up to anyone. Had he missed something? “What situation is that?”

Now Tom looked embarrassed. “Look, I’m just gonna say it. Pregnancy hormones can make a woman . . . want . . . certain things. From a man.”

Adrien’s eyes got so wide and his face got so hot, he probably looked like one of those squeeze dolls. “I—” His throat closed up. He swallowed and tried again. “I . . . read about that. But I haven’t seen any of the girls in class acting . . . that way.”

Tom rubbed his hair. “I don’t really know how it works for women who don’t actually have a man of their own. And maybe, with as young as Marinette and the other girls are, they didn’t have enough experience prior to all this for their bodies to . . . understand what their hormones are telling them?”

At least this conversation was awkward for Tom, too. Adrien really hadn’t considered that potential complication. He’d assumed that since he hadn’t seen any of the girls getting . . . that way . . . that they just weren’t. But how did he really even know what to look for? “It must be something like that,” Adrien agreed. “This whole thing snuck up on all of us. But I know Marinette hasn’t done or said anything that made it seem like she wanted . . . ” He couldn’t finish.

“Good. Good.” Tom let out a breath. “But, Adrien, if she ever does—you may need to be the one to keep things in line. Can you do that?”

In a single, momentary flash, Adrien remembered how Marinette had thrown herself on him when she’d confessed to Cat Noir on her terrace. He imagined her doing it again, but instead of saying, “I’m in love with you,” she said, “I want you. I need you.” He imagined her kissing him—a fantasy so vivid that it felt more like a memory. How would _his_ hormones react in a situation like that? And would _his_ body know what they were telling him?

He was pretty sure it would.

Adrien straightened and looked Tom in the eye. “I can, sir. Even if I didn’t have far too much respect for Marinette, as well as you and your wife—which I definitely do—and even if the friendship I have with her wasn’t too precious to risk—which it definitely is—there’s something else. Marinette and I are both seeing other people.”

“You are?” Tom asked in surprise.

_Oh._ Marinette must not have told them about Luka yet. Well, she hadn’t told her friends yet, either (not that she needed to actually say it). Maybe it was still too new. He probably shouldn’t say much. “Yes. The girl I love is finally giving me a real chance to win her, and there’s no way I’d do anything to risk it. And I want Marinette’s happiness too much to ever do anything that might put that at risk, either.”

Tom’s eyebrows pushed together in concern. “I see.” The next instant, he shifted from awkward and troubled to relaxed and jovial. “Well, then, hopefully we won’t have any issues.”

Adrien’s phone dinged, and he saw a text from his bodyguard. “My ride’s here. I’d better go.”

Before he could leave, Tom dropped a beefy hand onto his shoulder. “Marinette is extremely precious to me,” he said softly. “I wasn’t able to protect her from Fairy Grandmother, and I haven’t been able to support her now as much as she needs. I’m grateful for your help, and trust you with her.”

_He trusts me. He trusts me with something—someone—extremely precious to him._ Adrien’s own father didn’t even trust him with something as basic as going out on his own. Or hadn’t until recently. “Thank you. I won’t let you down, Tom.” _Or you either, Father._


	56. Chapter 56

With her mom’s help, Marinette made her room ready for a long-term guest. She got all her clothes safely stowed in her dresser or hamper, put a couple extra blankets in her chest (so that if Adrien happened to look inside, he wouldn’t see that it was full of presents, all with his name on them), and retrieved the photos of him from all the haphazard places they’d been hastily stuffed and secured them in a drawer.

_I can’t believe Adrien’s going to be living in my room for the next three months._ It was so surreal. She was excited and nervous. She wanted to squeal with joy but also throw up.

Marinette slapped herself lightly on the face. She needed to be mature about this. Focus on building her _friendship_ with him. And try not to fall more in love.

_Think about Cat Noir_ , she told herself. He’d been so sweet and funny on their last date, another casual rooftop dinner. She still insisted they avoid too much personal information, so he told her a second-hand story about the way some older man had met his wife. It was funny and romantic, and he’d told it with such enthusiasm that it had been hard to control her laughter.

The memory made her smile, and her racing heart calmed down.

“I think everything’s ready,” Sabine said, setting a pillow and blankets on the chaise longue.

“Thanks for your help, Mom.”

Sabine sat on the chaise and patted it, so Marinette went over to sit beside her. “Are you still in love with him, dear?”

The sudden question surprised Marinette. She averted her eyes and tapped her fingers. “I—not—I don’t _hate_ him. We’re . . . good friends! Right?”

Sabine took Marinette’s hand gently in hers. “Will you be able to handle this?”

“I have to, Mom. I . . . I do still have feelings for him, but I need to get over them. He’s in love with someone else, and I . . . I’ve kinda started seeing someone else, too.”

Sabine’s eyes widened. “You have?”

“Yeah, it’s . . . it’s still really new, so I don’t want to talk about it, if that’s okay. But he’s a really good guy, and if things do work out, I’ll definitely tell you at some point. He . . . he really cares about me, and I . . . need to get over Adrien. I need to be comfortable around him. It’ll be important for our son that things aren’t weird between us.”

“I understand,” Sabine said, her gaze full of kindness and sympathy. Then she changed topics. “Marinette, have you experienced any . . . confusing moods during your pregnancy?”

“Confusing how?”

“Like you have a strong need to be close to someone? Or be . . . touched?”

Marinette raised an eyebrow. “Not . . . really?” What exactly was her mom getting at?

“That’s good. If you do, try to remember what you just told me. And I’m here if you have any questions.” Sabine got up and headed for the door.

“O . . . kay?” _That was weird._

#

Adrien had never lived outside of his own home before. The closest he’d ever come was hotels, and that had always been with his family or his father’s employees, and never for more than a week at a time. He’d been looking forward to college in a few years mainly in the hopes that he’d be allowed to live in a dorm with other guys his age. This wasn’t exactly a dorm, and Marinette wasn’t exactly a guy, but Adrien was still excited for the companionship and freedom the opportunity provided.

He knocked on one of the big, black side doors of Marinette’s house, the same place he’d first talked to her as Cat Noir. He’d barely known her back then. What would his past self say if he could go back in time and tell him he’d be living here one day—and the reason for it?

Past him would probably think he was Copycat, telling him an outrageous and embarrassing story to distract him.

A large figure approached behind the decorative windows, and one of the doors opened. “Adrien?” asked Tom. “Why did you knock?”

Were they not expecting him? Had he somehow misunderstood something? He started to panic inside. “I . . . brought my things?” He held up a duffel bag, hoping that would clear everything up, because if it didn’t, he had nothing.

“The door was unlocked,” Tom said, standing aside to let him in. “This is your home now—for a while, anyway—so you don’t have to knock.”

Adrien sighed with relief. So that was what he’d meant.

Tom pulled out a key and gave it to Adrien. “You can have this for when it is locked, though. Just let yourself in.”

“Oh. Thanks.” It was strange to be given the key to another person’s house. He was afraid to use it, but it would probably be worse to needlessly make one of them come let him in.

“I’ve got dinner started,” Tom said as they went upstairs, “so you can go get settled in Marinette’s room while you wait.”

While Tom went back to cooking, Adrien knocked lightly on Marinette’s door. “Can I come in?”

He heard what sounded like a yes, so he went up.

Marinette was pacing. “I’ve been thinking. You shouldn’t have to sleep on the chaise longue. It wouldn’t be very comfortable, and you’re already doing so much just by coming here. You should take my bed, and I can sleep on the chaise. It’s closer to the door, anyway.”

Adrien dropped his bag. “Marinette, if the chaise is uncomfortable, that’s exactly why you should keep the bed. I can handle having a less than ideal place to sleep for a while. I’m not the one growing a human inside me. And while it would be nice for you to be closer to the door, I don’t mind helping you up and down the ladder to your bed whenever you need it, even if it’s the middle of the night.”

She looked away nervously. “Okay.”

He leaned closer. “You’ll wake me up if you need my help, right?”

She turned her head even farther away and hummed noncommittally.

Leaning a little bit closer still, he said, “Marinette, if you fall because you didn’t ask for my help, I’ll be angry.”

She blushed and looked at him.

“You’ll let me know when you need help, right?”

“Okay,” she squeaked.

“Promise?”

She nodded.

“Good.” He backed up out of her space. “I should probably get started on my homework, but I can give you a massage first if you want.”

“Yeeeessss,” she groan-sighed, instantly at ease, and moved the folding chair into position. Within seconds, she was sitting backwards in the chair, ready for a back rub.

Adrien chuckled and went to the chaise, grateful to have found something he could do for her that she was so comfortable with. Or maybe the relief it gave her from the physical discomfort outweighed whatever uncomfortableness she felt emotionally. He’d work with what he had.

As he began rubbing her back, Marinette asked, “How are Marc and Juleka doing with the modeling?”

“Really well. They’re picking up everything pretty easily. The hardest part is getting them to loosen up and be natural when people are looking at them. But I think it helps them both to have someone else going through the process with them.”

“You’re not going to stop giving them lessons because of me, are you?” The concern for her friends in her voice was evident.

“I’m definitely going to try to fit them in wherever I can first, and everything else after that.”

“I’m glad. Don’t ever bail on them on my account, okay?”

He smiled. “Okay. But we will try to work around you as much as possible.”

She snorted. “You make me sound like an over-sized couch.”

“Well, you do have big, fluffy cushions.”

Adrien froze. _What the heck did I just say?_

Marinette’s body had gone very tense. Slowly, she turned her head to face him, her eyes wide and face very red.

“I’m so sorry!” Adrien blurted. “I didn’t mean that! It was just a joke that popped into my head! I wasn’t actually thinking about you specifically! Yours aren’t even that big!”

Somehow, her face got even redder.

“Not that I’m looking!” he shrieked. How had he screwed everything up so quickly? He should have known not to try to crack jokes around Marinette. That time he’d tried to prank her had gone terribly, so he knew she didn’t like his jokes. He’d let the freedom from living under his father’s roof go to his head already. “Please forgive me, Marinette! I really, really didn’t mean to be rude. I just get jokes that pop into my head, and sometimes they’re dumb, and sometimes I don’t think them through, and usually I don’t let them slip out, but I guess I was feeling so relaxed that it just kind of . . . did. Please don’t kick me out. I really didn’t mean it.”

Her face had faded to light pink. “It’s okay, Adrien. I . . . guess I should be used to lame jokes by now.”

“What do you mean?”

“My dad! He’s forever telling lame jokes. So, uh . . . ” She got up. Great. He’d made her uncomfortable enough that she didn’t want him touching her anymore. “We’d better get to our homework before dinner.”

She went to her desk, and Adrien silently pulled out his own work.

A couple minutes after they got started, Marinette said softly, “I’m not going to kick you out over a bad joke, Adrien. I’m actually glad that it means you can relax here. We’re probably both going to do or say a lot of embarrassing things in the near future, so maybe we can promise to give each other the benefit of the doubt and not take it personally?”

A huge weight lifted off his chest. “Thanks so much, Marinette. It’s a promise.”

During dinner, Marinette’s parents didn’t mention Adrien’s shrieking, even though they had to have heard it. The fact that they didn’t ask about it meant that they’d come to their own conclusions, and that was actually more embarrassing than if they’d asked and he’d had to come up with some excuse.

But maybe it also meant that they trusted him and Marinette to work out their own situational growing pains.

After dinner, he volunteered to help with the dishes, but Sabine and Tom said he’d already had a long day and should get ready for bed. (Which was probably for the best, since Adrien had never actually washed dishes and was afraid he might break something.)

While Marinette went to the bathroom to take a shower and get ready for bed, Adrien changed clothes in her room. Mid-way through, he realized that he was standing almost naked in a girl’s bedroom—a girl he’d already had sex with once—and he just sort of . . . froze.

_Why is it suddenly hot in here?_

“Hey, that color-changing trick’s pretty impressive.” Plagg’s voice bit through the room like a whip lash. “Can you do any others besides red?”

“Plagg!” Adrien hissed. His kwami was floating in the air beside him, all nonchalant. “You have to stay hidden!” He snatched up his pajama pants and shoved his legs into them.

“Relax.” Plagg zipped around like he was surveying the place. “The water’s still running in the bathroom.”

Water running.

Shower.

Marinette in the shower.

_Stop it! Stop it!_ Adrien jerked his sleep t-shirt over his head. Then he took several calming breaths, thinking of what a good friend Marinette was and how sleazy it was for him to have those kind of lewd thoughts about her. Her sweet smile, her boldness in standing up for her friends, her adorable stammering when she got nervous, her fierce confidence when she had a game controller in her hand . . .

There, that was better. He was calm now. Marinette was a wonderful friend, and he was going to have an amazing time hanging out with her like he’d never been allowed to hang out with a friend before. And he would _not_ ruin it by being a creep, even in his own thoughts.

He made up the chaise longue as much like a bed as he could, using the blankets and pillow he found on them. “I’m sorry you’ll have to stay hidden, Plagg, but it is important that you do so.”

“Don’t worry about me, kid. I’ll be fine.”

“And I can’t buy you Camembert, since Marinette mentioned once that stinky cheese triggers her nausea.”

Plagg’s jaw dropped so far, he probably could have swallowed his own head. “You’re joking. Please tell me you’re joking.”

“Sorry.” Adrien hadn’t mentioned it to him before because he had a feeling that would have been enough for Plagg to oppose the entire plan. “And don’t eat all of the cheese in the fridge. It’s not yours, and they’ll notice it’s missing if it all disappears. I’ll arrange to buy some of my own groceries and get you some non-stinky cheeses that you can have.”

Plagg crossed his arms and turned away from Adrien, sulking like a child. “I see how it is. I come second now.”

“You come third, after Marinette and the baby.” Actually, it was probably fifth, after Ladybug and her baby, too. “But you’ll always be my first place kwami.”

Plagg huffed. “I’m sure Sass and Tikki will be devastated to hear that.”

Adrien poked his kwami affectionately. “You know I wouldn’t do this if it weren’t important. And it’s only for a few months.”

Giving up on the sulking routine, Plagg flew closer. “You know the actual birth means the hard part’s just starting, right? Especially for you males.”

Suddenly, Adrien’s mouth felt dry. The future after his son’s birth was such a huge, daunting, overwhelmingly scary thing to consider that he hadn’t wanted to think about it in any detail very much. “We’ll . . . figure it out.”

Plagg did not appear convinced.


	57. Chapter 57

The sound of footsteps came from the stairs, and Plagg darted into hiding. A few seconds later, Marinette came into the room, wearing a loose, knee-length nightgown with cap sleeves in the same grey and pink that her fashion choices often seemed to default to.

_Multimouse colors_ , Adrien thought with a smile.

“What?” she asked.

Adrien could hardly admit to her what he was smiling about, so he just said, “That nightgown’s cute. Did you make it yourself?”

“Oh.” She blushed lightly. “Yeah.”

When she tried to bend over to close the door, Adrien rushed forward. “I’ve got it.” He hadn’t noticed before, but having a main door on the floor like that was an issue. “We should probably do something to make this door easier for you to open from this side, since I can’t always be here to open it for you.”

Marinette stared at the door, frowning as she considered the problem. Then she went to her desk, scribbled on a piece of paper for a while, and handed it to him. It was a rough drawing of a simple pulley system. “Do you think you can build that for me?”

“Yes! Great idea, Marinette!” He’d never built something like this before, but he would figure it out. The very idea of building something around the house for her gave him a warm glow of domesticity.

She smiled sweetly. “Thanks. Um . . . I . . . should go to bed.”

“Oh, right!” Adrien backed up to make sure she had room to get to her bed ladder. “Do you need any help?”

“I can manage.”

Adrien watched from a safe distance in case she slipped, but she made it up to her bed loft all right. Once she settled in, he could just see where her feet were under the blanket. He turned off the lamp behind the chaise and lay down, snuggling into the blankets.

Soft moonlight came in through the windows. Everything was warm and quiet. If Adrien listened closely, he could hear Marinette shifting position. The room was very different than his—some would say more cramped, but he thought it was cozy. While it was odd not having Plagg sleeping on his pillow (they couldn’t risk Marinette looking down while Plagg and Adrien were asleep and seeing him), it was even better to hear the sounds of another person in the room.

Adrien lay awake for a long time, enjoying all the new nighttime sights and sounds of staying over at a friend’s house, before finally drifting off to sleep.

#

When all the humans had gone to sleep and the house was quiet, Tikki flew down to the kitchen. She was not surprised to find Plagg rummaging around in the refrigerator.

“What did your owner tell you about eating all the cheese?” she reprimanded.

He didn’t even look up from his rummaging. “Too late. They hardly had any in here, anyway.”

“Stop stealing food, or her parents will get suspicious!” Tikki grabbed Plagg by the neck and dragged him out through the refrigerator door.

“Why are you so worked up, Sugar Cube?” Plagg asked as he flew over to lie on the couch. “With our owners living together, they might finally realize they’re in love, and the kid can stop driving me crazy with all his pining for Ladybug.”

She joined him on the couch but remained floating just above the cushion, too agitated to relax. “That may be, but we need to let things happen in their own time. It would be a disaster if they only figured out they’re already in love because _you_ weren’t careful and blew Cat Noir’s cover!”

“I would never do that,” he drawled, leaning back with his arms behind his head.

“Then stop eating all the food!”

“All right, all right. If it’ll get you to stop yelling at me all the time, Sugar Cube.”

“And stop calling me Sugar Cube!”

“You know you like it.”

“I do not!” She crossed her arms. “Now I see why Cat Noir keeps calling Ladybug ‘Bugaboo’ even when she tells him to stop. It’s _your_ bad influence.”

“You know she likes it.”

Tikki sighed in exasperation and smacked her forehead. “There’s no reasoning with either of you. You and your owner are made for each other.”

Plagg shifted to lie sprawled on his back. “And yet here I am, cast out of his presence like a cat tossed out of the house for the night.”

“Stop sulking. You know we can’t risk being seen.”

To Tikki’s surprise, Plagg didn’t immediately shoot back a rejoinder. When he did speak, his tone was softer and much more pensive than usual. “Are we going to lose them, Tikki?”

She swooped over and sat beside him, touching his shoulder gently. “We always lose them, Plagg.”

“I like this one, though. I was hoping I’d get to keep him for a couple hundred more years.”

Moisture began to pool in Tikki’s eyes. “I know.”

“He told me his kitten’s more important than me.”

“That’s the way it should be, Plagg.”

“ . . . I know.”

#

Marinette groaned and stretched as she woke up, her eyes shut against the morning light coming through the hatch above her. “Ugh, Tikki, I had the weirdest dream.” There was no response. “Tikki?” Marinette pushed herself up into a sitting position. Tikki was nowhere to be found. That was weird. Unless . . . it hadn’t been a dream.

Slowly and quietly, Marinette crept to the end of her bed and looked down. She gasped and slapped a hand over her mouth. Adrien was lying on her chaise longue, sound asleep, one bare arm dangling over the edge.

It was real. Adrien had moved in.

He looked so peaceful when he slept. Like an angel.

She caught herself staring and snapped out of it. _Friend. Friend. Not for you._ Could she sneak past him without waking him? She really needed to go to the bathroom. But she could really use his help getting the door open; if she did it herself, she’d make enough noise to wake him up anyway.

“Adrien?” she said softly. Too softly. He didn’t stir. “Adrien?” she said, louder.

He blinked awake, turning his head to look at her. When their eyes met, his smile was lazy and sunny as a Sunday morning. Her heart lurched. “Good morning, Marinette.”

“G-good morning, Adrien.”

“Do you need help down?”

“I can get down, but could you lift the door for me?”

“Sure. Hang on a sec.” Without sitting up, he reached to the floor for his phone, then held it up like he was taking a selfie.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking a selfie.”

She giggled. “Why?”

He typed something out on the screen, then pushed his blanket off and sat up. “I’ll show you.”

Marinette worked her way down the stairs, feeling a little stiff but mostly okay. By the time she reached the floor, Adrien was standing.

He showed her his phone, open to a draft Instagram post. The photo of just-woken-up Adrien was so adorable, something inside her recoiled at the idea of him sharing it with the world like that. She wanted to slap the phone out of his hand. But that was ridiculous, so she focused on the caption he’d written.

_First night sleeping over at a friend’s! The chaise longue isn’t too bad, but we’ll see how it is in a few months, LOL. Sorry if you don’t see me around the pro press for a while. I’m easing up on work until the baby comes. My good friend and baby partner needs my support, and I’m here for her 100%. Remember your lady friends, guys. Pregnancy is no walk in the park._

“What do you think?” he asked. “Father wanted me to put something out right away so people don’t see that I’m living here and start rumors.”

She hadn’t even considered the possible rumors, but of course Adrien’s father had thought of it right away. “I think it looks . . . good. Casual. Open, but still private. And completely honest.”

“So you approve?”

Was he really asking for her approval? Her belly fluttered. “Yeah.”

“All right, then.” He tapped the screen. “And posted.”

Marinette felt something much less pleasant inside her and bent forward.

Adrien dropped his phone on the chaise. “Are you okay? What is it?”

“The baby just shifted,” she grunted. “He’s pressing on my bladder. I need to pee _now_.” She knew she should have been embarrassed about admitting that to Adrien—and about the way she’d completely shattered that nice little moment they’d been having—but her need to not wet herself overrode any other feelings at the moment.

Adrien jumped into action, opening the door for her and holding her elbow to help her down the stairs. Once they were down, she waved him away. “I can get it from here.” She didn’t need his help in the bathroom—she hoped she’d _never_ need his help in the bathroom—and she didn’t want him to be there if she really did wet herself.

#

By the time Adrien was finished with his shower, getting dressed, and doing his hair, Marinette was already changed and ready for the day.

“Ready to get breakfast?” he asked her. “We’re running short on time.”

Marinette looked up from where she was organizing the things in her school bag. “Short? We’re early. We’ll have time to grab something and maybe even eat it before we leave.”

_Ah, right. Marinette’s usually late._ Living with her was obviously going to be a change from the regimented schedule he was used to. He looked forward to it.

“To the bakery, then?” he asked, lifting the door open.

He called to check in with Nathalie on the way down the stairwell, then greeted Sabine, who was already busy at the register. As he and Marinette picked out something to eat, he noticed they were getting some looks from customers, and a couple even took photos of the two of them.

Adrien turned to them and smiled. “Hi, there.”

“It’s Adrien Agreste,” a girl gasped, as if he weren’t looking right at her.

“Uh, yes, it is,” he replied.

“Is she your girlfriend?” the other girl asked.

He turned his head to see Marinette hiding behind him a little bit. “No, she’s my friend. And I don’t mind you taking pictures, but could you not post them online? I’d really rather she not have her privacy compromised because of me.”

“Sure, sure,” said the girls, snapping one last photo.

Adrien took a chocolate croissant and told Marinette, “Sorry about that. I’d hoped the post this morning would stop people from talking.”

“I’m sure it helped,” she said, stuffing two croissants and a few cookies into her bag. “But there was always going to be some talk. If we just pretend everything’s normal and there’s nothing to hide, I think people will realize there’s no story here.”

“Smart cookie,” he said, picking up a cookie.

Marinette eyed it, then him, as if trying to decide if he was making another lame joke or not. Considering how well some of his previous jokes had gone over with her, he pretended it was pure coincidence.

When he took out some money to pay for the food, Marinette shook her head at him. “Don’t worry about it. You can have as much as you want. I’m sure Mom wouldn’t take your money anyway.”

Adrien and Marinette didn’t even make it into school before Alya and Nino confronted them.

“You’re holding out on us,” Alya said. “When did this happen?”

“When did what happen?” Adrien asked innocently.

Alya held up her phone, open to the post Adrien made this morning.

“Right, that. We arranged it yesterday. It’s not a big deal. Marinette needs some help getting around and stuff, and I’ve said from the start that I want to help her as much as I can.”

Alya kept giving him the evil eye, like she thought he was up to something.

“It’s really—it’s nothing, Alya,” said Marinette. “He’s just helping me out, that’s all.”

Nino and Alya shared a look, then Alya put an arm around Marinette’s shoulders and led her away, whispering into her ear.

“Is Alya angry?” Adrien asked.

“Nah,” said Nino. “You know how she doesn’t like to miss a scoop. I think she might be a little hurt that you guys didn’t tell her about it before you told the rest of the world.”

“But it’s not a big deal,” Adrien said again.

Nino strolled with him into the school courtyard. “Isn’t it, though? Your dad letting you do that is in itself a big deal. He does know you’re doing it, right?”

“Yeah. And I guess you’re right. I was actually pretty surprised he agreed. Even though I really am doing this to be there for Marinette and help her as much as I can, I’m also excited to be able to spend so much time with one of my friends, without constantly having to ask permission from my father.”

Nino rolled his eyes.

“What?”

“Nothing. So, where are you staying? On the couch, or . . . ?”

“In her room, on the chaise longue.”

Nino raised an eyebrow.

“What?!”

“Nothing. You guys are really okay with that? It’s not getting weird is it?”

They entered the locker room, and some of their classmates who were already there gave him looks. “It did get a little weird,” he admitted quietly to Nino as they went to their lockers. “But we’re working through it. It’s important for us to be comfortable around each other and become better friends, since we’re going to have to raise a child together.”

“You do have a point. It would be fun if Alya and I could come over and hang some time, maybe even spend the night, kids’ sleepover style. There’s still some lingering weirdness that it would be nice to really confront head-on and eradicate, you know?”

“I do. Maybe we can, after things between the two of us settle into some kind of normalcy.”

When they all got to class, the rest of their friends kept giving Marinette and Adrien weird looks.

Deciding it was best to continue treating everything like it was no big deal, Adrien paused before getting to his desk to look at them all. “Yes, I’m living at Marinette’s house to help her with the rest of her pregnancy. No, there’s nothing weird about it. Yes, I was surprised that my father let me do it, too. If any of you get any questions from anyone about it, I’d appreciate if you could help us emphasize how non-newsworthy this is.”

“Sure, Adrien,” said Kim.

“I think it’s great that you’re being so supportive!” said Rose.

Chloe gave him a look like she wanted to question him about it, but then she let out a dismissive huff and faced forward. Everyone else gave some kind of nod or encouraging comment, and that was the end of it.


	58. Chapter 58

An hour after school got out, Luka was in the library, catching up on some of what he’d missed from fourth period, when he’d had to pretend illness for half an hour to go fight a supervillain. The only other people in the library were Nino and Alya, sitting at the next table over. Even though they kept their voices low, the two of them were chatting so much, it was getting hard to concentrate.

“I still can’t believe Adrien just moved in like that without telling any of us,” Alya said.

“ _Alya_ ,” Nino said in an uncomfortable tone that made Luka glance up from his work. Sure enough, Nino was eyeing him apologetically.

Alya let out a puff of breath. “He had his chance.”

“Still, babe, you don’t have to rub it in his face.”

“I’m really okay with it,” Luka said, loudly enough for them to hear him but soft enough to hopefully indicate he didn’t want to actually join their conversation. “I want them to get closer, especially if it means they’ll end up together. Not that I wouldn’t take a very late second place if I could.”

“Don’t you mean third place?” Alya asked, a bit testily. “Marinette’s got her secret guy, remember?”

Luka chose not to clarify that he _did_ mean second place. He bent his head to his work, and they left him alone.

Unfortunately, they didn’t stop talking.

“Not that she doesn’t need the help,” Alya continued her original point, loudly shuffling her papers. “You’ve seen her room. I sure wouldn’t want to have to deal with all that right now.”

“Do you want me to come over to help you?” Nino asked her.

“Aw, that’s sweet, babe. But our apartment’s not built like an Escher painting, and Mom and Dad are there to help Nora and I—not that Nora needs any help—so we’re good.”

Luka’s attempt to work out the square root of X was further interrupted by the sound of some light kissing. _You really don’t have to rub it in my face, though_ , he thought, not looking up. Sure, his singleness was his own choice, but knowing what he now did, he really wouldn’t have been able to deal with the guilt if he actually had stolen Marinette away before the two of them got the chance to realize they were already in love with each other. If Fairy Grandmother had never happened and he’d found out their identities before the two of them had sorted out their feelings, he’d still have chosen to back off until they had. Some part of him probably would have been secretly hoping they wouldn’t work out, though. Now, there was a child to think of, so Luka just couldn’t bring himself to hope the relationship failed even a little bit.

“She’s not getting her hopes up again, is she?” Nino asked. “ ’Cause if Adrien’s making her think he’s interested after breaking her heart, I’ll need to have a talk with my boy.”

“She says she’s not,” said Alya.

“Do you believe her?”

“Honestly? Yeah. She really sounded set on continuing with her mystery guy, and she reiterated several times that Adrien was only helping her out of friendship and a sense of responsibility.”

“Good for her.”

For about half a minute, they worked in silence, the only sounds the shifting of papers and scratching of pencil. Then Alya asked, “Do you think he’s told Kagami?”

“I didn’t ask,” said Nino. “He hasn’t mentioned her at all lately. Are you really sure they’re dating?”

Luka stopped trying to tune out the conversation, curious about their suspicions.

“Marinette is,” said Alya. “He definitely told her he’s got some other girl, and Marinette thinks Kagami is the obvious choice. I’ve seen them together, too. Kagami is into him, and the two of them are close. I can’t think of anyone else it could be.”

“Unless . . . ” Nino offered, sounding like someone about to suggest they all go out for cake instead of doing homework. “ . . . he’s got a secret girlfriend none of us knows about. Maybe a hot model from Brazil.”

Eyes still focused on his work, Luka heard Alya laugh and lightly smack her fiancé. “That would be a juicy scoop, but I’m sorry, babe. You know what a sap Adrien is. There’s no way he could be in love with a girl and never even mention her existence to us. It’s got to be someone we already know he knows.”

Nino chuckled. “Yeah, Adrien’s too wholesome and honest to keep a secret that big from his best friend.”

 _Secrets don’t have to come from a place of deception_ , Luka thought. _You two should know that._ In Nino’s defense, he hadn’t known Adrien all that long. And so much of Adrien’s life was in the spotlight, they could be forgiven for thinking it would be impossible for him to hide anything big.

They were quiet for a little while again—long enough for Luka to think that maybe he’d get to truly focus on his own work.

Then Nino said, “It _is_ weird that he hasn’t mentioned dating Kagami, though.”

“He’s probably just hiding it from his dad,” said Alya.

Luka could still hear pencils moving, so the conversation was halfhearted.

“Or he’s not actually _serious_ about her,” said Nino.

The pencils stopped.

“No.” Alya’s tone was absolute. “He’s not a casual guy. Especially right now, with Marinette and Kagami being pregnant, he wouldn’t blow off the mother of his kid for some casual fling with a girl he didn’t intend to get serious about. I just can’t see it.”

“Yeah,” Nino agreed. “Adrien’s not the ‘casual dating’ type. He’s the ‘grow old with his high school sweetheart’ type.”

“Takes one to know one,” Alya said fondly.

Nino didn’t answer, but Luka heard them kiss again.

Alya sighed. “Marinette sure has a type. You know, she said her secret boyfriend isn’t really her boyfriend. She called him her suitor.”

“Suitor?” Nino repeated.

“Apparently they’re not dating. He’s _courting_ her. Can you believe that?”

Nino chuckled. “Is that the new retro fad? Cat Noir said he’s courting Ladybug, too.”

Pretending to still be focused on his work, Luka watched them surreptitiously.

The two of them laughed and went back to writing out their homework.

Suddenly and at the same moment, Nino and Alya stiffened, their heads snapping up, wide eyes locking with each other’s.

“No,” said Alya.

“There’s no way,” agreed Nino.

With a frantic scrape of chairs and rustle of papers, both of them shot to their feet and made for the door, their things forgotten.

Fortunately, Nino didn’t leave Alya behind, and despite how she hurried, she could only move so fast. It only took a few seconds for Luka to reach them and grab them both by the backs of their shirts.

They stumbled, Nino ensuring that Alya didn’t fall.

“Dude, what—” Nino said, his irritation disappearing immediately as he saw who had grabbed them and evidently recognized the implications. “You! You _know_?”

“Is it true?” demanded Alya.

“Not here,” Luka growled, watchful for anyone nearby.

Not letting go of their shirts, just in case they decided to try to ditch him, he dragged them to the most private place he could find: a large janitor’s closet.

Once the door was closed and the light was on, Alya started making a high-pitched squealing sound. Nino clamped a hand over her mouth to muffle it. Then he started making a similar sound, and she clamped a hand over his mouth.

Luka crossed his arms and waited it out.

Eventually they stopped squealing, sucked in huge breaths, and Alya blurted at Luka, “Do _not_ tell me it’s true! Do _not_ tell me that my best friend is actually Ladybug, and I, the owner of the premier blog about Ladybug, never noticed!”

“Adrien is definitely _not_ Cat Noir, right?” said Nino. “There’s no way! They’re completely different people!”

Luka just looked at them.

Nino grabbed him by the front of the shirt. “Luka, you’re killing us!”

Quietly, Luka told them, “You can’t say _anything_.”

They both started squealing again.

After they’d gone back to taking deep breaths, Luka said, “I found out during the fight with Kwamibuster. I tried to tell them about each other, but Ladybug told me not to tell them.”

Alya looked at him sharply and tried to put her hands on her hips but gave up when she discovered there wasn’t enough room in the closet. “You mean _Marinette_ told you?”

“I mean Ladybug.” They’d already figured it out, but he still didn’t want to say the actual words himself. He didn’t want to tell anyone, even if they already knew.

“What do you mean you tried to tell them and she said not to?” Alya demanded.

Luka held up his wrist, showing his camouflaged Miraculous. “The same way I figured out it wouldn’t be helpful to tell Adrien I’m not dating her.”

Nino slapped his hands over his own mouth to cover an outburst. Then he removed them and whispered, “Marinette’s Ladybug. Adrien’s Cat Noir. Cat Noir and Ladybug are together now. That means—”

“That means Marinette’s secret boyfriend is Adrien and she doesn’t even know it!” Alya finished.

“Neither does he! And now he’s living with her!”

“And they’re having a baby together! And—” Alya covered her mouth to stifle her shriek, then said, “Oh my gosh! Ladybug and Cat Noir _did_ get caught by the gas together! They just didn’t know it! Nadja Chamak was right”

That was it. That was the realization that tipped them over the edge. Nino snorted a laugh, then Alya giggled, then they both tumbled into wild, manic laughter interspersed with random words and incomplete thoughts.

It wasn’t that Luka didn’t see the humor, but it was hard to laugh about something that caused him so much heartache. Both his own, in knowing how hopeless his love for Marinette really was, and hers, in having to watch her suffer so much more than she needed to.

When the crazed laughter finally died down to a persistent chuckle, Luka repeated, “You can’t say _anything_.”

“What?” Alya gasped, still laughing but trying to control it. “But this solves everything! All we have to do is tell them who they are, and boom, happily ever after!”

“I tried that, remember?” Luka said, holding up his Miraculous for emphasis. “I worked through all of it with them, and she still told me to take it back. To keep their identities secret.”

“Marinette said that?” Alya asked incredulously.

Luka gave her a pointed look.

“Ladybug said that?” she amended. Then considered her own words. “Ladybug is Marinette. It’s hard to think of Marinette giving up Adrien like that if she had the chance, but . . . Ladybug has a lot more responsibility on her shoulders, and she’s always been really big on the whole secret identities thing.”

“It’s not the choice I wanted her to make,” Luka said softly. “But she had a right to do so, and he agreed with it.”

The weight of what they’d discovered was finally sinking in. Nino put his arm around Alya’s shoulders. He frowned at Luka. “You want us to stand by and say nothing while they plan out a platonic future of co-parenting with the person they love? While he works his butt off trying to win a girl who’s already crazy about him?”

“While she tries to get over the guy she’s been crushing on since they met,” Alya added, “while also trying to fall in love with the other version of him?”

Luka gave them a wan smile. “Welcome to my life.”

Alya’s eyes widened. “I may still be a bit annoyed with you for the way you pre-dumped Marinette . . . but dang, Luka. This has got to be rough on you.”

“As long as Marinette’s happy in the end, I’ll be okay.”

“Will she be?” Alya asked.

Luka nodded. “We’ll make sure of it.”

Nino crossed his arms and gave Luka a hard look. “So you _do_ plan to tell them some time.”

“I doubt I’ll have to. But if I do have to, yes. That was . . . actually the stipulation Cat Noir gave me in order to agree to Ladybug’s instructions. He wasn’t thrilled about it, but he trusts her.”

Nino couldn’t help a smile. “Yeah, he does.”

Without warning, Alya burst into tears and threw her arms around Luka. He and Nino stared at each other in shock.

“Sorry,” she said, sniffling, her voice muffled by Luka’s shirt. “Stupid mood swings. I’m happy for them, and I’m sad for you, and I’m sad for _them_ , and I’m proud of all of you.”

“Heh.” Luka gently put one arm around her shoulders.

Nino flung himself into the hug, pressed mostly against Alya’s back, with one arm tight around Luka. “Stupid mood swings,” he muttered, voice thick with emotion.

 _I have the weirdest teammates_ , Luka thought, wrapping his arms around them both.

Shortly, they broke away and composed themselves.

“Are you really sure we can’t tell them _anything_?” Alya asked.

What was the best way to explain this? “A song has a beat and a melody, notes and pauses, chorus and crescendo. Everything has to be in the right place, in the right order, or else its nothing but noise. Timing is important—in music, in life, and especially in love.”

“So, that’s a yes?” asked Nino.

“That’s a yes. I tried everything, believe me. Most of the time, it went badly. When it didn’t, Ladybug herself said it wasn’t the right time. We just have to have faith. Those two are meant for each other. It’ll happen.”

Alya took off her glasses and wiped her palm across her eyes. “And in the mean time, we have to pretend to know nothing.”

“That’s right,” Luka said.

“That’s gonna be hard.” She jerked her thumb toward Nino. “This guy can’t keep a secret to save his life.”

“Hey! I’ve kept my superhero identity secret. Mostly. I never _told_ anyone, anyway.”

“True,” said Alya. “But remember the trip to the wax museum?”

“Ah, right,” Nino said, suddenly sheepish. “You gave me confusing instructions!”

Alya turned to Luka. “Shouldn’t we at least tell them we know their identities?”

Luka shook his head. “There’d be no way to do that without explaining how you figured them out.”

Alya crossed her arms, thinking. “You’re right. I hate to keep it from her that I know, but I guess we have to.” She snapped her fingers. “This does explain why she gave us all Miraculouses, though.” With a smug smile, she added, “Of course the first one she turned to when she needed another superhero was her BFF.”

“I had been wondering why I knew all the rest of the team,” Nino admitted. “Except for Ladybug and Cat Noir, but it turns out I know them, too. This is awesome. Do you think one day we’ll all be out in the open with each other, and we can we can really rock the team thing without having to hide?”

“Only if I can get back on the team, too,” said Alya.

Luka smiled. “I hope so.” But there was a good point to the secret identities, for sure. He couldn’t predict what might happen if they all knew about each other openly, but he hoped it would be a good thing. “By the way,” he added, since he couldn’t think of any reason not to tell them this much, “Adrien knows about all the rest of you. Everyone but Ladybug, of course. Even you, Alya.”

Nino’s jaw dropped comically. “He knows? And he never told me?”

Alya smacked her forehead. “How could he tell you without telling you his identity, Nino?”

“That’s right,” said Luka. “He said he figured it out. He didn’t tell me how he figured it out, but it must have required knowledge he wouldn’t have if he weren’t Cat Noir.”

“He figured you out, too?” Nino asked as if he thought he was scoring a point.

Luka shrugged. “He was there when Ladybug first gave me my Miraculous.”

“Like with Max?” asked Nino.

Luka shook his head. “ _Cat Noir_ was there with Max. _Adrien_ is the one who was there with me. He actually suggested she give it to me.” He thought back to that day. “She was originally looking for him, but I guess maybe he said he couldn’t do it? He was already Cat Noir, so he must have had to come up with some kind of excuse why he couldn’t take the Snake Miraculous.” Maybe he’d remember to ask Adrien about it some time. “It must be awkward for him, as Cat Noir, trying to remember which identities Ladybug knows he knows and which she doesn’t know he knows.”

Alya tried to prop her hands on her hips again, bumped them on the wall and Nino, and crossed her arms instead. “This whole thing is way too complicated, if you ask me. The sooner we can all share our identities with each other, the better.”

Nino nodded. “Absolutely.”

“I feel the same way,” Luka said. “But Ladybug’s our leader. And we all trust her, right?”

“Of course!” said Nino.

“No doubt!” said Alya.

“Okay. I’m sorry you guys are burdened with this secret now, too. I know it won’t be easy. But I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t nice not being the only one keeping it anymore.”

“It won’t be easy,” Alya agreed. “But I bet it might be funny. As long as we can keep from concussing ourselves from too much banging our heads against the wall.”

Nino laughed. “At least we know it’s not on us to solve their love problems. She asked for this, and he went with it. Any grief they cause themselves from here out is all on them.”

“And hopefully we can all laugh about it together one day,” Alya added.

“I’m sure we will,” said Luka. And he really was.


	59. Chapter 59

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So ... spoiler alert ... for the anime 'Orange'.

Adrien was awoken by sounds of discomfort. He’d only been staying at Marinette’s for a few days, so his brain wasn’t really used to it yet. As he blinked awake, there was still a few seconds where he tried to figure out where he was. Then another second or two of mild internal panic that Plagg wasn’t nearby.

“ _Ungh_.” The low groan came from above and to his right.

He sat up and pushed off his blanket. “Marinette?” he asked softly. She didn’t answer, but he could hear her shifting around. He crept across the floor and halfway up the ladder, enough to peek over the edge. Her blanket was kicked most of the way off, and her body was restless. “Marinette? Are you okay?”

She lifted her head to look at him in surprise. “Adrien? I’m sorry; did I wake you?”

“It’s fine. Do you need help?”

The room was mostly dark, but the hatch just above her bed let enough light through for him to see the embarrassment on her face. “It’s fine. I just can’t get comfortable.”

“What can I do?”

He could see her hesitate, still not wanting to ‘bother’ him.

“Marinette, it’s what I’m here for. What can I do?”

“I . . . I think I need another pillow. There are some extras downstairs in the closet where you got the folding chair.”

“Okay. I’ll be right back.” He hurried to retrieve the extra pillow, taking care with the doors and stairs so he wouldn’t wake up Marinette’s parents, and then climbed to the top of her bed ladder to hand it to her.

“Th-thanks, Adrien. Sorry again.”

“Don’t be sorry. Will you be okay now?”

“I think so.” In addition to the pillow under her head, she already had one under her belly as she lay on her side and one between her knees. She took the new one and tried to shove it behind her, making annoyed grunts as she couldn’t get it how she wanted it.

“Want me to help?” he asked.

She sighed. “Sor—”

“Marinette, please stop apologizing.”

“S—okay. I need it behind my back, but I can’t get it tucked in.”

“Here, let me.” He climbed up onto her bed, crawling on his hands and knees, careful not to step on her. Taking the new pillow, he tucked it against her back and under her a bit. “Is that better?”

She looked up at him over her shoulder, her eyes shining in the moonlight. Why were they so wide? And why had her body gone so tense?

With a rush of heat to his face, Adrien realized it was the middle of the night, and he’d just climbed up onto her bed like it was nothing. “I—I’m sorry!” He scrambled backward until his feet hit the ladder and continued down a few rungs until he wasn’t touching her bed.

“No! It’s fine! It does feel better. Thank you.” Marinette’s body relaxed.

“I’m really sorry. I should have asked. I wasn’t thinking.”

She smiled in amusement. “Please stop apologizing.”

The burst of adrenaline faded, and Adrien smiled back at her. They hadn’t had any more embarrassingly awkward moments since that first day. He supposed they were due. “Okay. I’m going back to bed now. Wake me if you need anything.”

#

It had not been easy for Marinette to get back to sleep, between the aches in her body and the sight of Adrien hovering over her in her bed, his face mostly in shadows but his hair gleaming like a silver halo in the moonlight streaming in from her hatch. In order to get to sleep, she’d had to force her mind to focus on how Cat Noir had thrown himself between her and a supervillain’s slime balls earlier in the day. He’d been completely covered in yellow slime by the time the fight was over, which hadn’t stopped him from flirting with her. His overblown confidence and humor even in a situation like that had been hilarious. Of course, the more she laughed at him, the more he did it, so she knew she’d been unintentionally encouraging him. But the villain hadn’t been all that much of a threat, so she didn’t feel too bad about not chiding him to take it seriously.

When her alarm went off, though, the memory of Adrien climbing into—no, _onto_ —her bed came back in a rush that would not be ignored. She tried anyway.

Peeking over the end of her bed, she saw that he was already sitting with his feet on the floor, looking at his phone. Hearing her, he greeted her with a warm smile. “Good morning, Marinette.” Had he forgotten the whole thing last night? It obviously hadn’t meant anything to him, since he’d only reacted once he’d noticed her reacting.

She needed to pretend to have forgotten, too. “Morning, Adrien.” She moved to back down her ladder, groaning when she discovered how her legs and lower back ached. She was also having a hard time getting her head focused after not getting enough sleep.

Adrien must have seen her struggling, because she heard him approach behind her, one warm hand wrapping around her foot to gently guide it onto the next rung. She felt his presence grow closer, and when she chanced a glance over her shoulder, she saw him hovering again—not touching her, but standing only a couple rungs down from her. “What are you doing?”

His cheeks tinged pink, but he didn’t back down. “I just want to be here to catch you in case you need help. You had a rough night, and you look like you might need it. I’ll back down behind you; just pretend I’m not here unless you need me.”

_Like I could ever do that._ But she focused on getting down the ladder, and she made it to the floor without so much as brushing against him.

“Do you need me to help you get down to the bathroom?” he asked.

“Yes, please,” she murmured.

Once she’d made it back to her room and Adrien had gone down to shower and get ready, Tikki came out to say hi.

“Adrien sure is a gentleman,” Tikki said.

Marinette sighed as she picked out her clothes. “It would almost be easier if he wasn’t. How am I supposed to get over these feelings when he keeps being so caring and attentive?”

Tikki landed on her shoulder. “You’re very lucky to have him.”

“Except I don’t have him. Not really. And I need to remember that.” She changed into some comfy leggings and a tunic blouse. “I miss you already, Tikki. With Adrien here, we have hardly any time to just be together and talk.”

Tikki pressed herself against Marinette’s cheek for a cuddle. “I miss you, too, Marinette. But what’s happening now is important for you. It’s less dangerous for Adrien to be here helping you than for you to keep transforming every time something’s too difficult for you to do without superpowers.”

“I hope you’re right, Tikki.”

#

After school, Adrien walked Marinette home, then went the Gabriel building to give Marc and Juleka another modeling lesson. When he got back to the bakery, he found Marinette in her room, already doing her homework. They worked on some of it together, then Marinette switched to a design project and Adrien went downstairs to spread his homework out on the dining table.

Marinette’s parents were helping to cater a wedding and would be out until late, so when it was close to dinner time, Adrien went up to ask her what Marinette was in the mood for. For some reason, she was craving steak, spaghetti, and chocolate, so Adrien made a call to his chef at home, and his bodyguard delivered the meal just as Marinette finished up her project.

When she came down and saw everything laid out, she started crying. “I was just gonna have leftovers! Thank you!” While Adrien was still trying to figure out why she was crying, Marinette pulled up a stool and dove into the food, still crying while she stuffed her face.

He nearly hurt himself holding in his laughter.

After dinner, Adrien said, “It’s not that late, and we have a while before your parents get home. Want to watch a movie?”

Marinette went over to the corner of the couch and eased herself down, then kicked her feet up, rested her hands on her belly, and leaned her head back. “A movie sounds great,” she said sleepily.

From the sound of it, she wouldn’t make it through a whole movie, so Adrien picked up the remote and turned on a nice, calm slice-of-life anime. She opened her eyes to watch. He sat on the TV-facing side of the couch and moved her feet onto his lap. She stiffened a little at first, but she didn’t fight him, and once he got her socks off, he began massaging one foot and then the other. He worked on them for half an hour as they watched the movie, and as his hands got tired, he gradually, distractedly shifted from massaging her feet to simply stroking them, then finally just holding them once she’d nodded off.

When the credits started, a soft instrumental song playing in the background, Adrien began gently rubbing Marinette’s feet again to wake her up.

She groaned softly, blinked at him, and smiled. “That feels nice.”

“Good,” he said. “That’s the idea.” _I could get used to this_ , he thought. But no, that wasn’t true. He already was used to it, even after so short a time. Being here, with Marinette, just enjoying her company, seeing her relaxed and happy . . . He liked it. It calmed something deep inside his soul. Some restless, nervous part of him that always itched to get out of the house was happy to stay and be still when he was here with her.

And he would probably never have experienced it—never have discovered how nice this was—if it hadn’t been for Hawk Moth.

“Marinette?” he said softly. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.” Concern filled her blue eyes. Could she read the significance in his face so easily?

He almost hated to ask. It almost seemed wrong to even question it. To suggest that . . . But no; she wouldn’t get angry at him. He felt sure of it. “If you could take back what happened . . . If you could go back and change the past so that we didn’t get caught in Fairy Grandmother’s attack . . . would you?”

Her eyes widened, and her mouth fell open, but she didn’t respond right away. After a second, she closed her eyes, a pained look flitting over her features before they smoothed and she looked at him. “I’m not sure how to answer that, Adrien. I know I should say yes. So many people have been hurt, their lives disrupted, changed forever—”

“Forget about them for a second. Pretend you and I were the only ones affected, that no one else was involved. Would you take it back?”

Slowly, her face tensed, pulling into a look of pain. “I—I would never have wanted you to be forced into something like this—”

“What about _you_ , Marinette? Give me a selfish answer. What would you want for yourself?”

“I . . . ” Her eyes drifted down to her large belly, her hands moving to hold it. “I . . . I can’t say yes, Adrien.” Tears filled her eyes and fell down her face. “I’m so sorry. Everything is so messed up, but I . . . I just can’t wish we didn’t have him.”

Releasing her foot with one of his hands, he reached to take one of hers, pulling it away from her belly to hold it tightly. “Don’t cry, Marinette. Please don’t cry.” Easy to say, except he was doing it now, too. “I was thinking the same thing. I know it’s selfish of me. I know so much was taken from us, and especially from you. This is a huge burden to put on you without it being your choice. And I do wish some things had been different, but . . . I look at what I’ve already gained, and I just can’t manage to wish it away.”

She squeezed his hand, then pressed it flat against her belly, holding it there with her own. Adrien felt the movement of his son under his hand, and a new flow of tears sprang from his eyes.

“Have you ever—” His throat was too tight, so he swallowed and tried again. “Have you ever seen an anime called _Orange_?”

Marinette shook her head.

“It’s about these high school kids who get letters from their future selves, telling them that their new friend is going to die soon and what they have to do to stop it.”

“That sounds awful,” she murmured.

“It is pretty intense, but . . . Well, the thing is, their friend who dies in the original timeline was involved with the main girl, and when he died, she ended up with this other guy who was in love with her. So in the future, this other guy has a wife and a little baby, and he’s happy. But he misses his friend just like the rest of them, and he goes along with their plan to try to save him. He sends a letter to his younger self, telling him everything, and even sends a picture of his baby.”

“What did his younger self do?” she asked.

“He fought as hard as he could to save his friend. Even knowing it would mean that his friend would marry the girl he loved and he’d never get the wife and the baby that he had in the original timeline. Even knowing he would lose his entire family, he chose to save his friend and give him to the girl he loved.”

Marinette’s hand squeezed over Adrien’s. New tears were in her eyes.

“I never understood why he’d do that,” Adrien confessed. “But now I understand it even less. Maybe I’m just a selfish person, but I’m not sure I’d be willing to give up our son like that, even if a friend’s life was at stake.”

Marinette curled her fingers in between his, holding tightly onto his hand while still keeping it pressed to her pregnant belly. She opened her mouth to try to speak, but all that came out was a squeak, a gasp, and then crying as her eyes squeezed shut and tears fell.

“Are you . . . mad at me?” Adrien asked.

Her head shook from side to side so hard, her pigtails slapped against her cheeks. “I’m happy,” she croaked. “Confused. Frustrated. Scared. Still kind of angry. But I love our son, and I’m so happy that you love him, too.”

He wanted to hug her, but he’d have to crawl to the other side of the couch to do it, so with the hand she wasn’t holding, he moved from her foot to her ankle, wrapping his hand around it in a firm grip that he hoped helped to convey his feelings.

They were in this together. It was weird and awkward and confusing and embarrassing and complicated . . . and nice and reassuring and peaceful and lovely and miraculous. Whatever it was and whatever it would be, they’d keep figuring it out together. All three of them.


	60. Chapter 60

Ever since Adrien had started living at Marinette’s two weeks ago, it had been hard for her to transform and check for messages from Cat Noir every evening like they’d originally planned. Not that she wasn’t seeing him. Someone was still getting akumatized nearly every day, so they were still doing their usual protecting-the-city thing. Even better, most of the villain fights happened during the day, so she’d only had to play the lightheaded game three times while at home—and Adrien was such a doting attendant that he always left right away so he wouldn’t disturb her while she was ‘resting’.

But Ladybug and Cat Noir hadn’t actually gone on another date for the past two weeks. He kept casually mentioning it during battles, and all she could tell him was that things in her private life were different and crazy at the moment, and she needed to wait for some things to settle down. But lately, Marinette was beginning to realize that she was in serious danger of spilling her heart out all over Adrien, which would make things beyond weird when he was being such an amazing friend. It was so incredibly hard to keep her emotions under control when he kept touching her so gently and saying such sweet things. She wanted him to be hers so badly, with every fiber of her being, but he _wasn’t_ hers, he _couldn’t be_ hers because he was in love with Kagami, and Marinette _refused_ to allow her own stupid emotions to destroy her heart with hopeless longing.

After childbirth class, Marinette asked Alya to tell Miss Bustier she’d be a little late to the next lesson, implying she’d need some extra time in the bathroom. Which was true, but not the way she’d made it sound. She waited in the bathroom stall until class started, then peeked out to make sure she was alone before ducking back into the stall and transforming.

She wasn’t surprised that Cat Noir didn’t pick up when she called, so she left him a voicemail. “Hi, Kitty. Things have finally calmed down a little for me.” They hadn’t calmed down, exactly, but she and Adrien had found a routine to the weirdness, which was maybe close enough to calming down. “I want to see you whenever you’re ready for our next date.” She _needed_ to see him. Badly. To get her mind away from Adrien and back on the boy she was trying to fall for. But there was no point in either worrying him or inflating his ego. “I don’t know when you’ll get this message, so tonight or tomorrow night—whenever you’re ready, just let me know.”

#

It had been hard for Adrien to hold back from being too pushy with Ladybug. He’d had everything planned out for their next date before they’d even finished their previous one, but she’d been telling him her life was busy, and he didn’t want to come on so strong that she got annoyed with him. So he’d waited patiently, playfully reminding her whenever he saw her and dutifully checking his communicator messages whenever he could get a private moment to transform, but he hadn’t sent her any messages of his own. Since she’d been putting him off, he took it as a sign that she’d tell him when she was ready. After two weeks, he’d begun to worry that she was actually just trying to avoid telling him that she’d decided not to let him court her anymore. But he knew his lady better than that. If she wanted to break this off, she’d do it cleanly and to his face.

It was still a huge relief when he got her voicemail. He’d ducked into the bathroom during gym class and transformed while no one was around. Hearing her lovely voice say that she was ready for another date made his heart leap with joy, and he’d had to physically stifle an excited whoop.

Then he sent his own message. “I would be delighted to see you tonight, Milady, but things have gotten a teensy bit more complicated in my life, as well. I think we’ll need to wait until Friday night, when I’m less likely to be missed if I go out. If that meets with your a _purr_ oval, meet me on the top of the Eiffel Tower at nine p.m. on Friday.”

#

It was hard to wait until Friday, but Marinette felt stupid for not realizing it herself. With Adrien sleeping in the same room, _of course_ she wouldn’t be able to sneak out through her hatch for a late night date with Cat Noir. Which would mean she’d have to meet him earlier, which meant her parents would have to know, and they might not even let her go on a date on a school night—especially with a guy they didn’t know. It was obviously better to wait for a more normal date night. But with every day that passed, her heart grew weaker to Adrien’s kindness and sweetness. At least she saw Cat Noir most days during some battle or other, and his playful flirting gave her the strength she needed to resist Adrien.

When Friday night came, Marinette still hadn’t mentioned the date to her parents. She wasn’t sure if she would need to or if they’d expect her to. She probably needed to give some reason for being out of the house. If nothing else, she’d need to leave through the front door because if she came in through her hatch while Adrien was in her room, that would be a huge problem.

At six p.m., Marinette was on the couch in the living room, getting another foot rub from Adrien while her dad started dinner in the kitchen. Adrien’s fingers felt so good, strong and smooth and sure. Lately, he’d started including some ankle rubbing in his process, as well as the tops of her feet and the spots between her toes. She lay back, her feet absolutely melting in his hands.

One of his hands was wrapped around her right foot, the fingers of his other hand rubbing circles over her heel, then her ankle. They moved up to her lower calf.

She stiffened and blushed, which made him look up at her and freeze. “Is this all right?” he asked.

“Y-yes,” she said. “Just surprised me.”

Even though she could see some pink in his cheeks, he refocused on her foot, carefully rubbing the muscles in the lower part of her calf. These surprise moments of embarrassment—entirely caused by her overreacting to something he obviously considered normal until she freaked out—had become just another part of their strange new routine. She could see how affected he was by her emotional reaction, but he’d learned to trust her words more than her reactions, which she appreciated. It was a lot harder to control her emotions than her words and her choices, and her lack of control made her emotions all the less reliable than the decisions she deliberately made. So if she said something was okay, even if she was temporarily uncomfortable or embarrassed, he believed her.

As he massaged her foot and her lower calf, his blush faded, and he smiled softly. “I think I’m going to miss doing this for you when this is all over.”

Because he’d have to. Because giving massages to a girl who wasn’t your girlfriend when you had a girlfriend wasn’t something that was really ever okay for anyone who wasn’t a professional masseuse.

She considered jokingly saying that he wouldn’t have to stop, but as a joke, she knew it would go terribly wrong. He’d see the truth behind the words, and things would get awkward. So, Marinette only sighed and said, “Me, too.”

Just as they settled back into a peaceful silence, Tom called from the kitchen, “Is everyone good with quiche for dinner?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Adrien, “I meant to tell you: I’m not eating dinner tonight. I have a date, so I’ll be eating out.”

Marinette closed her eyes and focused on mentally pushing out the knife that had just plunged into her heart. It had no right to be there. She had no right to feel such pain. Of course Adrien would want to go on dates with Kagami, the girl he loved. She should have realized sooner that it was strange he hadn’t said anything about it before now.

When she opened her eyes, she saw that Tom had turned toward him, wielding a spatula in a slightly menacing way. “A date?” he asked, sounding both confused and unhappy.

Marinette tried to smile to reassure him, to silently tell him not to be angry at Adrien. None of them had any right to be angry at him over this. “I actually have a date, too, Dad.” Sabine had probably already told Tom about the mystery guy their daughter was seeing and hopefully about the fact that she didn’t want to talk about it just yet. “So I probably shouldn’t eat either.”

The unhappiness in Tom’s expression faded, but the confusion increased. “You have a date, too? Oh, well . . . all right. You both just make sure not to be home too late.” He turned back to his baking.

“You definitely deserve a night out,” said Adrien. “And I’m glad this means I’m not abandoning you here alone.”

“Don’t worry about abandoning me, Adrien. I appreciate everything you’re doing. You deserve a night out, too.”

“So, where are you going?”

Not ‘Who are you going out with?’ Was he really so utterly uninterested in her that he wasn’t even the slightest bit curious? She tried not to show how much that hurt. It helped that he was still mostly focused on the ongoing foot rub. “I, uh, I’m not sure. We’re meeting up, but I’m not sure what the date is actually going to be. What about you?”

“Oh, um, you know, the usual. Dinner, maybe a movie or a carriage ride. Just normal stuff.”

A moonlit carriage ride in a park with Adrien sounded so romantic. Her imagination supplied an image of him and Kagami on that romantic ride, and it nearly stole her breath.

She pictured Cat Noir’s face, imagined the excited smile he’d show her when she arrived, wondered what he had planned . . . _Choose him_ , she told her heart. _Please, just choose him._

#

Adrien left an hour early to get his supplies from his house and get everything set up on the very top platform of the Eiffel Tower. It was cold this high up, but their supersuits would keep them comfortable enough. He’d gone with glow sticks instead of candles, strung up with string like big Christmas lights. It was too windy for flower petals, but the big, squashy pillows he’d brought stayed in place well enough. Lights and pillows would have to be enough decoration tonight. Besides, the city itself would be all the backdrop they needed.

By the time Ladybug arrived, night had fully set in, and the city was twinkling like the stars above. Cat Noir stood waiting for her with a flower in his hand.

“Milady.” He kissed her cheek, and she took the flower. He wanted to scoop her into his arms and hold her tight, but he also didn’t want to come on too strong, so he settled for a huge smile he couldn’t have prevented if he’d wanted to. “How are you?”

“Not too bad. It’s good to see you.” She sniffed the rose.

“We see each other all the time,” he pointed out.

“It’s good to . . . see you this way.”

His heart swelled so much, it was about to burst out of his chest. He leaned in so close to her face, he could have kissed her. “Do you, Milady? Do you see me the way I see you?”

She blushed—a beautiful, sweet red like a ripe apple. “I’m trying to, Kitty. I’m really trying to.”

His heart deflated, and he stepped back. “Does it take that much effort?”

She followed him and laid a hand on his chest. “It’s not you, Cat Noir. It’s . . . the other boy. My baby’s father.”

His heart dropped into his stomach. “Oh.”

She shook her head. “Nothing’s changed. Nothing _will_ change. I know he’s not the one for me. But my emotions haven’t quite accepted that yet. Keep courting me, Kitty. Keep working on me. If . . . if you think I’m worth the effort.”

He took her hand in his and held it to his chest. “You’re worth all the effort I could ever give, Ladybug. You’re the most amazing girl in the world. Thank you for even _wanting_ to love me. And believe me, I’m doing my best.” He stepped back and swept an arm toward the pillows. “Have a seat? I hope you didn’t have dinner.”

“No. I thought you might bring food.” She sat on one of the piles of pillows and set the flower down. It immediately got caught by the wind and flew away. “Oh, no.”

Cat Noir laughed. “Don’t worry, Ladybug. I’ll bring you all the flowers you’ll ever want.” He sat beside her on the pillows, their backs against the wall of the tower’s center, and opened the picnic basket. With the possibility of wind, he’d had to keep things simple. He pulled out two individual-sized bottles of sparkling cider. He left the basket cover open to show the selection of bite-sized delicacies. He’d had his chef whip them up earlier in the day, so he knew they’d be good.

As they opened their drinks and nibbled their food, they gazed out together on the lights of the city. “It’s so beautiful up here,” Ladybug said. “I can’t ever get enough of it. How could anyone ever get tired of a view like this?”

“You didn’t have any trouble getting up here, did you?” he asked. “I didn’t think, but maybe we shouldn’t have our dates so high up while you’re pregnant.”

“I’m okay,” she said. “Although keeping things a bit lower to the ground in the future might not be a terrible idea.”

“It would be easier to think of places for our dates if you’d be willing to be seen in public with me.”

She sighed. “We can be seen in public, Cat Noir. But . . . I’m not sure it’s a good idea to let people know we’re seeing each other just yet. But if we can find things to do that won’t make it obvious we’re on a date, I’m open to it.”

“Then I’ll see what I can come up with,” he promised. He loved having dinner alone with her like this, but actually doing something would be fun, too. “How is your pregnancy treating you?”

“The usual. Aches and pain, feeling like a huge whale most of the time, hormones doing stupid things at unpredictable moments.”

“Not sure if I can do anything about those last two,” he said, “but I could give you a massage if you want. I think I’m getting pretty good at it.”

He expected her to agree right away like Marinette usually did. If she was that uncomfortable, he’d expected her to jump at the chance of a free massage. But Ladybug stared off into the distance with a pensive look for a long time, and then finally said, “Thank you, Cat Noir, but . . . I don’t think so.”

The rejection hurt more than he’d have expected. “Oh. I see.”

“No, you don’t. It’s not you.”

“It never is. And yet . . . ”

She shook her head. “Things are so complicated right now. My baby’s father . . . He’s trying really hard. In a totally platonic, friend kind of way, he’s trying his best to keep me comfortable and support me. Massages are . . . kind of his thing. One of the main things he likes to do for me, to feel like a part of this pregnancy. I feel like if I accepted that from someone else, I’d . . . I don’t know . . . I’d be taking that away from him. Does that make any sense?”

“He wouldn’t have to know.”

“I know. But . . . I would. And I’m afraid it would mean less when he did it. And I don’t want it to.”

“Because you love him?”

“Because . . . it’s not going to last long, and it will always be a memory I’ll keep of how my baby’s father loved me, in his own way, when I was carrying our child. And even though he doesn’t mean anything romantic by it, it still means a lot to me, and I want to cherish it.”

Cat Noir thought about that, trying to see things from her perspective. When that failed, he tried to imagine how he’d feel if he saw Luka giving Marinette a back rub or a foot massage. It would feel kind of like . . . he was losing his place as his baby’s father. As weird as that was. He already knew he would have to share his child once Marinette and Luka eventually got married. Just like he’d have to share Ladybug’s baby with this other guy, assuming he succeeded in winning her.

He sighed. “I think I get it. As complicated as everything is, we all still want to keep the pieces we can get of the relationships we have. Even if we have to share, we still want to carve out pieces that are just ours.”

Ladybug reached over and took his hand. “Thank you for understanding. And for offering.”

He squeezed her hand. She didn’t pull it away, so he kept holding it. “What can we talk about tonight? Can you tell me something about yourself? What about your hopes for the future?”

“I’m not sure I can answer that without giving you too many clues to my identity.”

“Please try. Think of something you can tell me.”

Ladybug thought for a minute. “My hopes for the future aren’t quite what they once were, but they’re not that different. Before, I hoped to marry the boy I love, have some kids, maybe a pet. But he’s not an option now. The kids—or at least _kid_ —aren’t really an _option_ , either. So, I have to fit my hopes around the choices I know I have. I want to raise my son as well as I can. I want to keep a good relationship with his father. I want to . . . ” She hesitated, cast a quick glance at Cat Noir, then bit her lip before continuing. “I want to give my son a father who can be there for him even when _his_ father can’t. I still want to get married. And maybe have more kids.”

Cat Noir’s hand tightened around hers without any prompting from him. “Can I hope this is where I come in?”

“You can hope. I do.”

Warmth spread from Cat Noir’s chest throughout his whole body. “I want the same, Ladybug. I want to give my son all the love I can. I want to be the best dad to him I can be. I want to keep the best possible friendship with his mom. And if you’ll have me, I want to be the best dad to _your_ son that I can be, and I’ll spend my life working as hard as I can to be a husband you’ll be proud of.”

Ladybug chuckled. “I want to tell you you’re getting ahead of yourself, but then I remember that I’m about to have a baby, so that whole stable, grown-up family thing isn’t the far-future goal it should be at our age.”

“I’m ready whenever you are, Ladybug,” he said, smirking.

“I know, My Kitty,” she said, squeezing his hand tighter. “I’m counting on it.”

#

They sat up there on the tower together for a long time. After the food was gone, Ladybug leaned closer to Cat Noir, letting her head rest against his shoulder. It was hard to talk about the future without getting into too many details, but they chatted about what kind of pets they’d like to get and what good pet names were. Ladybug was more a fan of the classics, but Cat Noir said if he ever got a Bearded Collie he’d have to name it Chewbarka. And if he got a newt he’d name it Newton. And if he got a hamster, he’d make it little rock star glasses and name it Hamstar.

He went on like that for a while.

Ladybug stopped him by saying, “I’ll let you name the pets, but I get to name the kids.”

There was a weird, awkward silence, during which she wondered if she’d said something too serious (even though she’d mostly been joking), and if he’d take it more seriously than she’d intended.

But then he chuckled and said, “Deal,” and she still wasn’t sure how seriously either of them had meant it. “Ladybug,” he said afterward, “have you picked out a name for your son yet?”

“I . . . I’m not really sure. I did have a name picked out, but I’m not sure . . . whether I should use it.”

“Why not?”

“Because . . . it was a name I picked when I was still dreaming of having a family with _him_. Now that I know that won’t happen, I can’t decide whether I should choose a totally different name or not.”

Cat Noir didn’t try to pressure her either way. He just smiled calmly and said, “I’m sure whatever you decide will be the right choice. It’s only a name, after all.”

“Have you guys picked out a name for your son?” she asked.

“She hasn’t mentioned one yet, and I figured I’d leave the decision to her. With all she’s having to go through, she should at least get that. Besides, she doesn’t like my puns either, so she probably wouldn’t like any suggestions I’d make.”

“Tell me you wouldn’t really give your own child a punny name.”

“No. But really, I don’t care what his name is. I’m sure whatever she picks will be fine.”

Ladybug was struck with the sudden desire to know what kind of relationship Cat Noir had with the mother of his child. Did he make her laugh? Did he tease her and flirt with her, even though they were only friends? Maybe especially because they were only friends?

Ladybug knew she couldn’t ask, but the curiosity itself was unexpected. Even more so was the slight jealousy.

Being here with Cat Noir made her feel so content. All the wild feelings inside her when she was with Adrien calmed and settled when she was with her partner. Maybe it was knowing that he loved her and that he was ready and willing to have a future with her if she said the word. There was security there, assurance that she’d never had with Adrien. Even though Cat Noir didn’t make her heart go crazy, she knew that with him, it would be safe and protected. He would never cause her the kind of anguish and uncertainty that her feelings for Adrien had caused. She would never have to wonder how he felt about her, if he was angry with her or feeling neglected, because he was always completely open with her about how he felt. That had been annoying at a lot of times in the past, but now she saw how reassuring it was. And she had always been able to be completely open and honest with him in return, since her emotions didn’t short-circuit her brain around him like they did around Adrien. In some ways, she liked herself better when she was around Cat Noir than when she was around Adrien, and she didn’t think all of it was just being Ladybug.

She sat there for a while longer with him, listening to him making bad jokes about whatever meaningless topic crossed his mind. Eventually, she opened her yo-yo to check the time. “I’d better get back.”

He made a soft groan of disappointment but helped her to her feet. “Thank you for coming, Milady. Until next time?”

She kissed his cheek. “I’ll stay in touch.”

She got home around ten, said goodnight to her parents, and went up to her room. Adrien still wasn’t back yet, but she was still floating on a fluffy, peaceful cloud and didn’t let it bother her. She went to the bathroom to shower and get ready for bed. When she came back to her room, Adrien was standing there in his pajamas like he’d just finished changing.

He looked happy. “Hi, Marinette. How was your date?”

The fluffy, peaceful cloud inside her made her smile softly at the question. “It was really good. Yours?”

He beamed at her, smile as bright as the sun. “Amazing. You need help up to your bed?”

“I think I can get it.” She managed to climb up to her bed without help and heard Adrien settling into the chaise longue.

They turned out the lights.

“Good night, Marinette.”

“Good night, Adrien.”


	61. Chapter 61

The following Tuesday, Adrien and Marinette were met outside the school by Alya, who whisked Marinette away before Adrien could even make sure she felt up to tackling the stairs. As he watched to make sure they got into the school okay, Nino came up beside him.

“Alya sure was in a hurry,” Adrien said. “Does she have something important to tell Marinette?”

“Nah, I don’t think it’s that,” Nino answered as the two of them started up the stairs themselves. “Alya’s just in one of her female-companionship-only moods.”

Adrien raised an eyebrow. “What does that mean?”

“It means she’s having trouble keeping her hands off me, so she had to get away.”

Adrien nearly tripped over a step. “What?!”

Nino shrugged. “I am pretty irresistible.”

Not being a girl, Adrien wasn’t really a good judge of Nino’s irresistability. “I’m still not sure I follow.”

Nino slung an arm over Adrien’s shoulders. “It’s the hormones, bro. Sometimes they make her want to get just a little too frisky. And since we’ve already decided not to do anything more than kiss and cuddle until after we get married, she has to vamoose before we both go crazy.”

_Yeah, I was afraid that’s what you were talking about._ “To be honest, Nino, I’m not sure I want to hear about that.” He met Nino’s eyes and tapped his own head. “I’ve still got some things in here you probably wish I didn’t.”

Nino winced and pulled his arm back. “Same, dude. But that’s why I still think we should all come over some time, just the four of us. We need to show those stupid memories who’s boss.”

Adrien laughed. As they entered the school courtyard, he saw Marinette and Alya talking with some other girls near the left stairs. “You really think we can get rid of the memories by confronting them?”

“No, but the only way forward is through.” Nino gave Adrien a side-eye as they walked toward the locker room. “How are things going with living at Marinette’s?”

“Really good. We have some . . . awkward moments sometimes, but we’ve gotten used to them.”

“Awkward how?”

“She’s a lot more relaxed around me most of the time, but she still freezes up or gets flustered at the strangest times. But I really think we’re making progress.”

“She’s not . . . getting a little too frisky, is she?”

“No!” The very idea made Adrien’s face flame. Glancing around to make sure no one was nearby, he hissed, “She’s not getting _frisky_ at all.” Nino chuckled in a way that sounded almost relieved, and Adrien joined in after a second. “It’s probably different for you and Alya because you’re in love and already planning to get married. Marinette and I don’t feel that way about each other.”

“You sure about that, dude?”

“Of course I’m sure. There’s nothing _like that_ between us at all. We’re just friends who got caught in this weird situation together. Like Alix and Nathaniel.”

Adrien pushed open the door, and he and Nino stepped into the locker room—and instantly froze in their tracks.

Alix and Nathaniel were making out against the lockers.

Adrien gaped at the incredibly ill-timed discovery. Neither of their two friends had noticed Nino and Adrien enter yet. Alix had Nathaniel backed up against the lockers, her hands wrapped around the collar of his shirt to pull his face down to her level. The degree of aggression in her kiss was, quite frankly, a bit terrifying, but Nathaniel wasn’t exactly trying to get away.

Nino snickered behind his hand. “Just like them, huh?”

Adrien shot him a glare, then nervously looked back at the unexpected couple. “Should we say something?” There wasn’t anyone else in the locker room besides the four of them, and Adrien was beginning to feel like some kind of voyeur.

Especially when Alix groaned, one of her hands dropped to Nathaniel’s stomach, and one of her legs started curling around his. But before Adrien could announce his presence, Nathaniel’s eyes popped open and his hands pushed against Alix’s shoulders.

“Alix, what are you doing?!” Nathaniel said against her mouth. Now he _was_ trying to pull away, but her grip on his collar was fierce.

“What’s it look like?” she growled, forcing her mouth back against his.

Adrien was stunned speechless, completely at a loss about what to do here. When he shared a quick, confused look with Nino, his best friend seemed to be in the same boat.

“Should we save him?” Adrien whispered.

Nathaniel yelped and pushed hard enough on Alix’s shoulders to put her at arm’s length. “Alix, stop!”

She flicked a glance down his body. “Gimme.”

“Yah!” Nathaniel twisted his lower body away from her like he expected to get kneed in the groin. “Alix,” he hissed, “you’re not yourself. It’s the hormones talking.”

“So?”

“So, if I do anything now, you’ll beat the crap out of me later!” When she reached for him again, he looked around for help and spotted Nino and Adrien. Releasing Alix, he tore himself away from her and scrambled toward them. “Save me!” He dove behind Adrien and grabbed the back of his shirt.

“You okay, Nathaniel?” Adrien asked.

Peering over Adrien’s shoulder, Nathaniel only whispered, “Save me!”

Alix came at them with a determined waddle— _Dang, her belly is nearly as big as the rest of her._ —and Adrien held his hands up like he was trying to calm a wild animal. “Alix, get a grip. You’re scaring us.”

Nino stepped forward and held Alix back by the shoulders. “Alix? Can you calm down?”

She shot a look up at Nino that shifted from annoyance to consideration so quickly, he nearly released her in surprise.

_Guess_ _it’s true what they say about rabbits_ _._ The thought popped into Adrien’s head, startling a bark of laughter out of him.

“It’s not funny,” Nino growled.

Adrien couldn’t exactly explain, so he said, “Hold her off. I’ll go get one of the girls.”

With Nathaniel behind him, the two them backed out of the room. Once outside, Nathaniel ran a safe distance away, keeping concerned watch on the door, while Adrien ran to the group of girls. “Can one of you go in there and and splash some water on Alix or something? Maybe take her to the nurse? She kinda tried to molest Nathaniel, and now Nino’s holding her back, and I’m worried for his safety.”

Alya’s eyes flared with protective jealousy. “Oh, no, she doesn’t!” She stormed off as fast as she could storm toward the locker room.

The other girls shared a look of confused panic, then Juleka, Rose, and Mylène ran for the locker room, bypassing Alya on the way.

Which left Adrien standing alone with Marinette, and he couldn’t help but wonder what Alya had talked to her about when she’d dragged her off a few minutes ago.

“Um . . . ” He rubbed the back of his head. “I should go make sure Nino’s okay. Maybe you should check on Nathaniel?”

She looked over to Nathaniel, who was now hiding behind a very perplexed Ivan. “Okay,” she said uncertainly.

“Thanks.” Adrien took off, figuring Nathaniel could explain the situation to her.

#

“So . . . ” Nino drawled, propping his chin in his hand. “You and Alix, huh?”

Nathaniel blushed bright red and slouched lower in his chair. He, Nino, Adrien, and Kim were sitting at a table together in the library, working on a project for their history class.

Adrien had wondered about Alix and Nathaniel at different points during the last few months, but neither of them had done or said anything that implied they were a couple, so he’d figured either they were taking it really slow, putting off any decisions until after the babies were born, or maybe Adrien had just read things wrong to begin with. He definitely had not been prepared for what he and Nino had walked in on this morning. “I thought you two were just friends.”

Nathaniel somehow got even redder.

Kim leaned over, grinning, and whispered, “Are you guys doing it?”

“No!” Nathaniel blurted. He slapped his hands over his face like he thought he could hide from the conversation behind them, then slowly lowered them. “That was the first time she’s gotten that bad,” he said in a near-whisper. “Mostly it’s just k-kissing. And sometimes she gets a little . . . clingy. But I haven’t seen her this bad before.”

“So you _are_ together?” Adrien asked.

Nathaniel looked to the side. “I’m . . . not sure. Her hormones are making her act weird, so I don’t know how much of what she’s feeling is real.”

“But do you have feelings for her?” Adrien hoped he wasn’t being too pushy, but he felt strangely invested in the answers to these questions.

Shrinking down a little more, Nathaniel nodded.

Adrien glanced at Nino to find his best friend giving him a smug _I told you so_ look. Adrien rolled his eyes. Just because Nathaniel and Alix might not be only friends anymore didn’t mean anything about him and Marinette. As far as Adrien knew, neither of _them_ had other people they were in love with, so it was a totally different situation.

Shifting his attention back to Nathaniel, Nino said, “You gotta have a plan for dealing with the hormones, dude. If you wait ’til you’re already getting pounced on, it’s too late.”

“What kind of plan?” Nathaniel whimpered. “She’s so much stronger than she looks!”

“Why not just go with it?” Kim suggested.

All three of them looked at him in disbelief.

“Go with . . . what?” asked Nino.

Kim squinted in confusion. “Um . . . it?”

“Kim . . . ” Nino said slowly, “are you and Ondine having sex?”

“Ehhh . . . ” Kim made that same face he did when they’d asked him if she was pregnant. The one that said the answer was yes but he wasn’t supposed to say anything. “It’s kind of gone beyond that.”

Adrien could hardly believe what he was hearing. From the looks on Nino’s and Nathaniel’s faces, neither could they

“Beyond—” Nino nearly shouted, then caught himself and said more quietly, “Beyond sex? What’s beyond sex?”

“Kim,” Adrien said, “why did you do that? What were you thinking?”

Kim spread his hands wide and gave them all an accusing look. “You guys said we should help out the girls however we could!”

“Within reason!” Nino and Adrien objected simultaneously.

“Well, no one told me that!” Kim protested. They were all definitely getting too loud now, but at least there weren’t many other people in the library.

“We shouldn’t have had to!” argued Nino. “It’s common sense!”

Kim huffed and crossed his arms. “Look, you guys said we should help them, and I’m all on board with that. So when Ondine said she wanted to touch me, I let her do whatever made her feel better.”

“You could say no!” Nino nearly shouted, shooting to his feet with his hands planted on the table.

Someone on the upper level of the library loudly shushed them.

“Well, yeah,” Kim said at a more normal tone. “But, you know . . . ” He shrugged.

Adrien cringed. _But you didn’t want to._ Kim had some very good qualities, but thinking through the consequences of his actions wasn’t his strong suit.

“Anyway,” Kim continued. “Her dad caught us, and he’s some kind of big wig in the mayor’s office, so he got Chloe’s dad to push through some kind of special marriage allowance.”

_No way._ Adrien blinked at Kim in shock.

Nino fell back into his chair. “Kim, are you saying you got shotgun-married?”

“I don’t really know what that means, but yeah, technically Ondine and I are married now. She doesn’t want to tell anyone, though, since she wants to do a whole fancy ceremony once the baby’s out and she’s not fat anymore.”

All Nino could do at this point was slap a hand over his face and shake his head.

Adrien asked, “Are you . . . okay with all that?”

Kim shrugged. “We were probably gonna get married anyway, right?”

“Do you love her that much?” Adrien asked.

“Sure! But we already have a baby on the way. So it’s the right thing to do, right?”

_Absolutely amazing._ Kim had such a pure, simple view of right and wrong. For him, there was right and there was wrong, and there was never any reason to hesitate in choosing what he considered the right thing. It was what made him such a great superhero. “You know, Kim,” said Adrien, “I hope you don’t ever lose your way of looking at the world. I’m a little jealous of it.”

“Dude,” said Nino, leaning back hard in his chair. “You’re seriously married?”

“Yeah.” said Kim. “What’s the big deal? You’re planning to.”

“I didn’t expect you to beat me to it. You know it’s a lifetime commitment, right?”

“Well, yeah, but so’s a baby.”

“But you didn’t have a choice about the baby,” Nino pointed out.

Kim leaned back and slung his elbows over the corners of his chair back. “Didn’t really have a choice about the marriage, either, but what can you do? Life throws stuff at you, and you just gotta roll with it.”

Adrien was really beginning to envy Kim’s clarity, even knowing it came from the simplicity of his mind.

“What does that mean?” Nathaniel asked. “The marriage. For you. Are you living with her?”

“Not right now. We’ll have to figure that out later. For right now, all it means is we can do whatever we want and Ondine’s dad won’t blow a fuse. Plus, Ondine’s been super happy lately, and I really like seeing her happy.”

“You really do love her, don’t you?” Adrien asked.

“Of course I do,” said Kim. “I just wish I hadn’t taken so long to realize she liked me.” He zeroed in on Adrien. “Speaking of which—”

Nino threw a book at Kim’s head.

“Ow!” Kim nearly fell out of his chair.

“Sorry about that, Kim,” said Nino. “Anyway, Nathaniel, you should talk to Alix. Outline your boundaries and get agreement from her on them while she’s, uh, sober, so to speak.”

Blushing again, Nathaniel turned his pencil over in his fingers, staring at it like it was the most interesting thing at the table. “I guess I’d better,” he murmured.

Adrien was genuinely impressed at the way Nino dished out advice. “When did you become such a relationship guru, Nino?”

He puffed up his chest. “I learned it from my grandpa. You just gotta focus on what I like to call the Three Coms: communication, communion, and commitment. Talk to her, be with her, and, uh, commit to her. And that’s how you keep your lady happy.”

Adrien grinned. “That’s pretty insightful for something with such a stupid name.”

Nino raised an eyebrow. “Really, bro? With the way you pun, I don’t even want to know what you’d come up with.” As soon as he finished talking, Nino’s eyes widened, and he looked away awkwardly.

How did he know how much Adrien liked puns? “I don’t pun that often,” he pointed out. Not when he wasn’t in costume, anyway.

Nino pointed a finger at him. “ _Any_ puns are too many puns.”

“Everyone’s a critic,” Adrien muttered.

Kim slammed his hand on the table. “I do all three of those things! So I’m like the king of boyfriends, right?”

Nino shook his head. “You can’t be the king of boyfriends if you’re a husband.”

Kim shot to his feet and threw his fists into the air like he’d just scored a goal. “I am the king of husbands!”

“Are you trying to keep it a secret or not?” Nathaniel asked.

“Oh, right.” Kim sat back down. “So, let’s see. I’m dealing with Ondine’s hormone madness by giving her what she wants, Nino seems to have figured out things with Alya, and Nath’s going to have a talk with Alix. That only leaves you, Adrien. How are you dealing with Marinette?”

Adrien did not at all like the turn this conversation had suddenly taken. “What do you mean? There’s nothing to deal with.”

“Nothing at all?” Nino asked.

“No. Like I told you, we don’t see each other that way.” At least, they didn’t see each other romantically, and even though he figured Marinette still remembered some stuff from the attack like he did, he hadn’t seen any indication that she was feeling any of the kinds of things that he’d seen in Alix this morning.

The other three guys didn’t respond with anything besides worried stares.

“Why are you all looking at me like that?”

“Should we tell him?” whispered Nathaniel.

“ _No_.” Nino’s answer left no room for argument.

“Tell me what?” demanded Adrien.

“Nothing,” Nino insisted. “There’s nothing to tell. Nothing at all. Right, guys?”

Nathaniel and Kim murmured vague agreements.

“Okay,” Adrien said. “Nice talk. Can we get back to our project now?” They might all have issues with their girlfriends—or wife, as the case may be—getting ‘frisky’, but Adrien was sure Marinette wasn’t like that, so he had nothing to worry about.

As they got back to work, Adrien thought about Nino’s Three Coms. _Talk to her, be with her, commit to her. I’m already doing the first two every chance I get, and I’ve told her over and over that I’m more than willing to do the last. According to Nino, I’m doing everything right._ _I hope it’ll_ _be enough to win Ladybug’s heart._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have way too much fun with Kim.


	62. Chapter 62

At lunch time, Marinette was surprised to find that most of the boys in her class were sitting at one table and most of the girls at another. Chloe and Sabrina were off by themselves, as usual, and Adrien was walking behind Marinette, but not even Alya and Nino were sitting together.

After they’d gotten their food, Adrien asked her, “Is it okay if I sit with the guys?” By which she assumed he meant, _You can eat a meal without needing a personal assistant, right?_

“Y-yeah. Sure.” She looked from one table to the other. The girls were chatting amongst themselves, and the boys mostly were too, but they kept tossing glances over to the girls’ table like they were expecting a sudden attack. “What exactly is going on?” Things had been tense and unusually quiet all through their morning classes, too.

“Didn’t you talk to Nathaniel?” Adrien asked.

“Yeah. His shirt was all rumpled, but he just said Alix was having a rough morning.” And she’d spent two periods in the nurse’s office, so Marinette hoped nothing was wrong. “What was all that you said about her trying to molest him? She wasn’t hitting him again, was she?”

Adrien shifted his weight uncomfortably. “Maybe you’d better ask her about it. Excuse me.” He went over to sit with the boys.

Marinette slid into the seat between Alya and Alix. When Rose finished telling them about the new Kitty Section song the band was working on, Marinette asked Alix, “Are you okay? Nathaniel said you had a rough morning.”

Alix did a spit-take all over Rose, and Alya snorted with laughter.

“Sorry,” Alix told Rose while Juleka dabbed napkins over her best friend’s face.

“It’s fine,” Rose said, smiling as juice dripped down her neck.

“Nothing’s wrong, Marinette,” Alya said. “Alix just had what Nino likes to call an attack of the friskies.” While Marinette tried to figure out what that meant, Alya turned to Alix. “But girl, that was some A-level stuff. Real championship-tier horniness.”

“Horniness?” Marinette squeaked.

Alix made a frustrated sound. “These hormones are driving me _crazy_. Half the time I want to kick him across the room. Half the time I want to jump his bones.”

Marinette stared at her in horror. “Are you . . . talking about Nathaniel?”

“Which doesn’t even make sense!” Alix growled. “I didn’t even _like_ it the first time. Not that I remember it, but I didn’t like how much it hurt afterward. Why does my body keep wanting to put itself through that again?”

Marinette held up her hand, trying to slow the conversation down until she could catch up. “Wait, Alix. You . . . and Nathaniel . . . are a thing?”

“Argh!” Alix fisted her hands in her hair. “I don’t know _what_ we are anymore. I know he’s my friend because we were friends before all this started. But now I really like kissing him and I can’t stop remembering what he looked like naked, and sometimes my body feels so hot and aching and—”

“Is the lunch room really the best place to be talking about this?” Marinette asked, glancing around. At least Alix was keeping her frustrated ranting reasonably quiet and they were on the other side of the cafeteria from the boys, but people _might_ still hear them.

“You brought it up,” Alya told her.

“I didn’t know I was bringing _that_ up!”

“How can you do it, Marinette?” Alix asked. “How can you be _living_ with Adrien and not going crazy? Unless . . . ” Alix’s eyes narrowed.

Marinette waved her hands between them. “Unless what? There is no unless! I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

Alix’s head tilted. “You really don’t?”

“No! I mean, I understand what you’re saying you’re feeling, sort of, but I’m not feeling any of that.”

Alix planted her elbows on the table and her face in her hands. “Not fair. Not fair. Am I getting twice the hormones because I have twice the babies?”

She looked so distressed by it, Marinette made soothing circular motions on Alix’s back with her hand. “There, there. At least you know it’ll be over once the babies are out.”

“I don’t know how he puts up with me,” Alix muttered. “I hate being like this.”

Movement caught Marinette’s eye, and she looked behind them to see Nathaniel carefully approach.

“Alix?” he said, his tone soft and gentle. “Are you okay?”

Alix looked up at him. “I’m so sorry about this morning, Nath.”

“It’s okay. Can we talk? Maybe in the courtyard?”

“Don’t want to be alone with me?” Alix pushed back from the table, her chair scraping against the floor, and accepted a hand from Nathaniel to get to her feet. “I can’t blame you.”

Nathaniel didn’t say anything to that, but he kept his hand wrapped around hers as he led her out of the cafeteria.

“Poor Alix,” Marinette murmured. When she turned back toward the rest of the table, she caught Alya eyeing her.

“You’re really not feeling _anything_ like that about Adrien?” Alya asked.

“No!”

Alya held her gaze for several seconds as if analyzing the truthfulness of her statement. “That’s good,” she said, apparently deciding to accept it. “Because you really don’t need to throw _that_ into the mix, too.”

#

That night, Marinette dreamed of Adrien. She clung to him, arms and legs wrapped around him, his arms tight around her, his face pressed against the crook of her neck. Skin to skin, heat and movement. Strange, familiar sensations. An overwhelming yearning to be closer and closer still. Knowing they were as close as it was possible for two people to get. Love, such love in her heart for him, and she knew with the certainty of dreams that he felt the same.

When she woke in the night, she felt the loss of that closeness, that certainty, as reality solidified around her. Her heart wasn’t the only thing still reaching for the dream. Her body felt strange. An ache that wasn’t soreness. Her pulse a little too fast.

Needing to see him for some reason she wasn’t awake enough to analyze, she crawled to the end of her bed and peered over the edge.

Adrien was asleep on her chaise longue, his blanket pushed down to his hips, one arm flung above his head and the other dangling to the floor. His face at peace. In the soft, sliver light streaming in through the window behind him, she saw a wide band of bare skin where his t-shirt had hiked up. The smooth tone of his abs.

Her heart rate increased, shifting her brain into full wakefulness. Her body grew hot. The ache that wasn’t pain throbbed.

Hot and aching.

Just like Alix had said.

Marinette flung herself back under her own blanket and buried her face in her pillow.

_This is bad._

#

Somehow, she went back to sleep, but when she woke again in the morning, Adrien was still there, and her heart and hands wanted to reach out for him.

“Do you need help down?” he asked her. His voice sounded so sweet.

“No, I’m okay.”

He gathered a change of clothes and went down to the bathroom. Where he would take his clothes off and shower.

Even though it had only been a few brief, terrifying seconds, she had seen him naked once. After last night, the flashes of memory which had already faded considerably refreshed themselves into HD clarity. His stomach had looked just like she’d remembered, and above that was his chest, and his shoulders . . .

“Tikki,” Marinette groaned. “Help me.”

In a flash, Tikki phased through her mattress to where Marinette was still sitting on her bed. “What’s wrong, Marinette?”

Even with her kwami, this was embarrassing to talk about. “Remember all that stuff with Alix at school yesterday?” She hadn’t spoken to Tikki about it, but as usual, Tikki had been in her purse most of the time, so she must have heard.

“Yes.”

“I think it might have made me have a dream last night. And now I have all these . . . feelings . . . about Adrien.”

“New feelings?”

Marinette twisted her fingers together. “Physical feelings.”

Tikki’s eyes widened. “Ohhh.”

“How do I get rid of them, Tikki? I’m gonna screw everything up again. I can’t let him know I’m feeling like this or everything will get weird. He’s got Kagami, and I’ve got Cat Noir. I can’t just kiss him to take the edge off like Alya and Alix can with Nino and Nathaniel.”

Frowning in thought, Tikki swooped slow circles around Marinette’s head. “I’m sorry, Marinette, but I don’t know if I can be much help with this. Kwamis don’t have the kinds of feelings that you’re talking about. But it sounds like you’re doing the right thing to keep in mind the people other than you and Adrien who’d be affected if you let yourself indulge your feelings.”

_Focus on that_ , Marinette told herself. _I can do that._

“Do you think you should talk to your mom about it?” Tikki asked.

“No!” Marinette blurted. “If I talk to her, they might think I’m going to do something, and they might chase Adrien away. It’s so important to him to be able to be here. And despite all the awkward moments, I . . . I like having him here. He really is helping me.”

“Didn’t your mom say something the first night he came over?”

Marinette thought back to what her mom had said. Something about confusing moods and needing to be touched. “Is this what she meant?” Heat poured into her cheeks at the thought of her mom knowing she might have those sorts of feelings for Adrien. But what had she told her to do about them? “She said I should keep in mind how important it was for our baby that things not be weird between Adrien and me. And things would definitely get weird if I did _anything_ to act on these weird feelings.”

Climbing down to her floor to change clothes before Adrien got back, Marinette set her mind firmly on the other people who would be affected if she acted impulsively. Her baby’s future was at stake. Her own future with Cat Noir, who genuinely loved her and who she so badly wanted to love back, was at stake. Adrien’s happiness with the girl he loved was at stake. She set all of those things firmly in the forefront of her mind as she got ready for school.

#

She made it through the day without letting anyone see how strange her body felt whenever she was close to Adrien. At least, she was pretty sure. Adrien was as sweet and attentive as ever, and he never noticed how her skin burned when he took her hand to help her up a step. Alya didn’t say anything or try to tease Marinette—and she definitely would have if she’d noticed something. If Marinette kept just a little more distance between herself and Adrien than she had been recently, he didn’t comment on it. And if she found herself staring at the back of his head in class, well, Alya was probably so used to that by now that it didn’t even register with her. She even got home and did her homework and got through dinner with everything appearing to be perfectly normal.

But when Marinette and Adrien went back up to her room after dinner and Adrien asked if she wanted him to give her a back rub, she froze.

It was normal now for him to give her some kind of massage at least once a day. The thought of his hands on her made her heart race in a whole new way than it ever had before. A fight erupted inside her between the desire to be close to him and evade suspicion and the fear of what might break loose if she let him touch her.

“Marinette?” Adrien stood frowning at her. “Are you okay? You normally don’t have to think about it this long.”

_Crap. I already messed up._

“You’ve been acting kind of weird all day,” he said. He _had_ noticed. “Are you . . . getting tired of me being around?”

“No! It’s the opposite of that!”

“You . . . like me being around? Then why are you suddenly trying to keep your distance from me? This isn’t about what happened yesterday with Alix and Nathaniel, is it?”

She felt the blood rush out of her face.

Alarm swept over his features. “I don’t know what the other girls said to you, but I know you haven’t been like that. Their problems are their problems, not ours. Pregnancy affects women in lots of different ways, so not everyone gets the same . . . symptoms. You don’t need to worry that I’m afraid of you . . . um . . . pouncing on me.”

_You should be_ , she thought, unable to find any words to say to reassure him. Having him bring it up and put it out in the open brought a surge of feelings and memories to her mind. The dream. The sight of his abs in the moonlight.

From somewhere that felt far removed from her own body, she was aware that in thinking of his stomach, her eyes had drifted to that spot as if she could see through his shirt. Thanks to her imagination and memory, it was almost like she could. Her mind filled in from there. Chest. Shoulders. Hips.

Her body was so hot, and she felt so . . . empty.

Her gaze was locked on the fly of his pants, but she couldn’t manage to tear it away. _I know what you’re hiding under there_ , she thought with a brain full of fog. _And I want it._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a cliffhanger there, but don't get too worried (or excited, depending on your preferences); there isn't any actual smut in this fic.


	63. Chapter 63

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early post today. :)

Adrien swallowed hard. If Marinette kept staring at him like that, he’d give her something to stare at whether he meant to or not.

“Marinette?” His voice came out in a squeak.

Her eyes snapped to his, her entire face turned red, and she let out a panicked squeal. Before he could figure out what to say next, she grabbed her nightgown from a drawer and rushed out of the room faster than he thought her capable of.

Adrien sank with a thump onto the chaise longue.

“What’s wrong, kid?” Plagg floated up in front of Adrien’s face. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Maybe not a ghost, but he _had_ seen an expression on Marinette’s face that he never would have guessed could be there. The fact that it was aimed at him had made his heart leap into overdrive. “It looks like Marinette is having some of those same feelings the other girls are,” he said, his voice oddly hollow.

“You mean the feeling like she wants to make another baby? You’d think she’d know to wait until the current one’s out first.”

“Yeah, I . . . guess it doesn’t make much sense, but it happens sometimes.” Adrien dragged his hands over his face. “What am I gonna do, Plagg? She looked so mortified once she snapped out of it. I want to keep helping her, but I don’t want my being around to be a bother to her.”

Plagg floated by on his back with his hands behind his head like he was drifting down a stream. “Seems to me the real question is if _you_ can handle being around _her_ when she’s like this.”

It took Adrien a second to realize what he meant. When he did, he narrowed his eyes at his kwami. “She doesn’t actually want me, Plagg. It’s just her hormones. And even if she did, she’s got Luka and she knows I’m in love with someone else.”

“So you’d just leave her in distress?”

“Sex isn’t a simple thing, Plagg. I know you kwamis don’t get that, but even if I was interested, it would change too many things. It would ruin our friendship. It would ruin my chances with Ladybug.”

“But it could lock in your chances with Marinette.”

“My heart wants Ladybug.”

“But your body wants Marinette.”

“My body doesn’t get a vote.” Adrien got up and paced. “What’s with the questions? Is this all a joke to you?”

“Can’t I play devil’s advocate?”

“You should never advocate for the devil, Plagg. That’s literally the side of evil.”

Plagg came over to hang in the air near Adrien’s head, staying in that position even as Adrien paced. “If I don’t make you think about these things now, Adrien, you might not think about them at all until after you do something you can’t take back.”

Adrien stopped and looked at Plagg. “I get that you’re trying to help, but you don’t need to worry so much. There is a part of me that wants a repeat of what happened to Marinette and I during the Fairy Grandmother attack, and I am aware of that.” Marinette’s pregnancy hormones were colluding with his teen-boy hormones in an insidious plot to ruin their friendship—and their relationships with their significant others. No, worse than that. It could have a devastating effect on his relationship with his son, too. Because ruining his friendship with Marinette now meant being kicked to the periphery of his son’s life, since it would be unbearably uncomfortable for Marinette and Adrien to spend enough time together for him to really be an involved father. “But that part’s tiny compared to the rest of me. I have too much respect and love for too many people to even be seriously tempted to do anything like that with her.” For his kwami’s benefit, he counted them off on his fingers. “One, it would destroy my friendship with Marinette in a way we couldn’t take back. Two, doing that would put a wedge between me and my son because Marinette wouldn’t feel comfortable enough around me to let me be around them as much as I want. Three, I could never hide it from Ladybug, and when I confessed it to her, she’d rightfully think I was a lousy cheater and want nothing to do with me. Four, I gave Tom my word that I would control the situation if she got like this. Her parents knew this was a possibility, and they still trusted me enough to let me move in. They’re amazing people whose good opinion about me means more than I can say, so I could never betray their trust. Five, if Alya knew I’d taken that kind of advantage of her best friend, she’d never forgive me. I’d lose _her_ as a friend _and_ Nino because he’d side with her.” He could go on, but that was probably enough to get his point across, so there was no point starting on the other hand.

Plagg made a lazy circle in the air. “So, you _have_ thought about this.”

Adrien sighed. “There’s nothing to think about, Plagg. Everything I just said is obvious on the surface of it. Yes, I sometimes have feelings and thoughts I wish I didn’t have, but I would never in a million years act on them.” He sat back down on the chaise longue.

Plagg sat beside him the exact way a human would. “If you’re not worried about what you might do, why are you so bothered?”

“Because Marinette starting to have these sorts of feelings means she might not want me here any more, and I’d really rather not leave. We’re making good progress on her being comfortable with me—or had been, until this. And she does sometimes need my help getting around, and I know the massages help her. I don’t want to have to leave her, but I’m afraid that when she gets back from the bathroom, she’ll kick me out.”

“She might not.”

Anything was possible. That would at least give him a chance to work things out with her. For now, all he could do was wait until she came back.

After sitting there a while in silence, Adrien picked up his phone to check the time. Forty minutes had passed since Marinette had run out.

“Something’s wrong.” Leaving his phone and Plagg behind, he went downstairs and knocked on the bathroom door. “Marinette? Are you in there?” She didn’t respond, but he could hear the water running. _Something’s wrong_ , he thought again. Worry shoved past any potential for embarrassment, and he turned the door knob, pushing it open slowly enough to give her a chance to react. “I’m coming in.”

When he entered the bathroom, he didn’t immediately see her. The bathroom had a sink and vanity, a toilet with a bit of shelving above it, and a claw foot tub with a shower attachment. The shower curtain was fully closed, the water running at full blast, but there was no steam in the air and the mirror wasn’t fogged up.

A tingle of warning shot up Adrien’s spine. Without thinking, he stuck his hand behind the shower curtain to feel the water coming out of the shower head. Cold. Instantly, he pushed the curtain aside enough to turn the water off, then threw it back the rest of the way.

Marinette sat in the other end of the tub, naked and wet, with her knees curled up and ankles crossed, her arms folded over her breasts. Her dark hair was loose and soaked through, water dripping off her face as she stared at her knees. Shivers made her whole body vibrate compulsively.

Adrien covered his mouth in shock, stunned by a pain in his heart so intense it brought tears to his eyes and nearly floored him. Then he snapped out of it, grabbed the large towel that was folded on the toilet lid, and threw it over her. He knelt on the floor beside the tub and began rubbing the towel over her hair, shoulders, and legs—wherever he could try to dry her without leaving her uncovered. “Marinette, what are you doing?” he asked, desperate for an explanation.

She turned her head and looked at him. Her eyes were so big and blue, and as he watched, they filled with tears. “Taking a cold shower,” she whispered.

Adrien’s heart clenched. He’d expected her to respond to her embarrassment about her feelings by asking him to leave. It didn’t occur to him that she’d take it out on herself. But if she was willing to go to this length to try to get rid of her feelings, that meant she wanted to keep him around.

With one corner of the towel, he dried the water from her face. “You silly girl. Don’t you trust me? We’ll figure this out together.”

She threw one arm around his neck and clung to him for dear life as she cried softly against him. Maneuvering the towel to wrap around her, he stood and lifted her with him. She never released her one-armed hold on his neck, so with the towel around her, he scooped her into his arms.

It wasn’t easy getting her up the stairs. She was normally pretty light, but she was carrying extra weight in her belly that made her heavier and harder to hold, especially since usually when he carried people, he had the benefit of his superpowers. But he got her back into her room and sat her down on the chaise. She finally let him go, and he threw the blanket over her as well, snugging it around her head and shoulders and down to her calves like a cocoon. Then he sat beside her and wrapped his arms around her, tucking her wet head under his chin.

She shivered and cried in silence for a while, and soon the shaking of her body wasn’t shivers anymore but only crying, then even that mostly stopped. When she’d worked down to nothing more than sniffles, Adrien said, “You don’t have to take all the responsibility for this on yourself, Marinette. No matter what you feel, I’m not going to take advantage of you. And I won’t let you take advantage of me. And you don’t have to feel embarrassed about it, either. I know it’s just a pregnancy symptom, which means it’s as much my fault as yours. I would never hold it against you or think badly of you for it.”

Marinette sniffled some more.

He sat back so he could look at her, keeping one arm around her shoulders. “You didn’t make yourself sick, did you?”

She shook her head and whispered, “I don’t think so.” Then she leaned into him as if trying to regain some of the contact he’d just taken away.

“How . . . are you feeling now?”

“Better.” She pressed a little closer into him.

“Not, uh, frisky anymore?”

She shook her head.

“Do you want to talk about how we’re going to handle it?”

She blushed, which was probably a good sign after all the shivering. “Do we have to?”

“We kinda do. Do you want to get dressed first?”

Her eyes widened, and her blush deepened. She snaked one hand up from under the blanket to cover her face.

He chuckled. “You scared me, Marinette. Don’t ever do something like that again, okay?”

“Sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to force you to—”

“You’re so strong, Marinette. One of the strongest people I know. I hated seeing you so helpless.” He’d have thought seeing her naked—even if he hadn’t seen her more sensitive parts—would have caused very different unwelcome feelings in him, but that had been far from his mind at the time. Even right now, holding her, knowing she was naked under her cocoon didn’t bother him at all. He was just glad she was safe. After pressing a quick kiss to the top of her head, he stood. “I’ll go get your nightgown and another towel from the bathroom. You can get dressed by yourself?”

She ducked her head and nodded.

Adrien retrieved the items and left them just inside her door, then went downstairs to find a dry blanket for himself. He never ran into her parents, so they must have both been in their bedroom already. It was probably for the best that they hadn’t seen him carrying their mostly naked daughter in his arms like that. Either they’d get the right idea and worry or get the wrong idea and worry about something else.

When he came back into her room (after asking if it was safe to enter), he found her sitting on the chaise in her nightgown with her own blanket wrapped around her shoulders and the wet towels and blanket in a heap on the floor. He could see she’d done a decent job at towel-drying her hair, but it was still awfully damp.

“You shouldn’t go to bed with wet hair,” he said. “Do you have a blow drier?”

She pointed to one of the lower drawers in her vanity. “Yes, but I don’t really have the energy to deal with it.”

He opened the drawer and found it. “Do you have the energy to sit there while I do it?” When he turned back to face her, she was looking at him with a disbelieving expression that made him laugh. “I’m a model, Marinette. I know how a hair drier works.”

“No, it’s not that—” She blushed and looked down instead of clarifying her thought.

Adrien plugged in the blow drier and knelt on the chaise behind her to dry her hair. It was too loud for them to talk, so he focused on getting it all nice and dry for her. Her hair was thick and silky under his fingers, and it occurred to him that he hadn’t run his fingers through a woman’s hair since his mom disappeared. The feel of it was so familiar and calming, he got a lump in his throat.

When he was finished, he put the blow drier away and sat beside her. “Better?”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

He had no idea how to start this conversation.

Fortunately, it sounded like she did. “It . . . it started with a dream last night.”

“Oh.” At least that meant it really was new and he hadn’t failed to notice it.

“I don’t really think it was about . . . um . . . ” She swallowed.

“What was it about?”

“I think it was just about wanting to be close and feel . . . feel connected to someone. Maybe it’s a nesting thing? Or, like, a bonding thing?”

He nodded, glad she was giving him a rational reason he could latch onto. “Like an instinct? Like . . . you want to get closer to me in order for us to bond as a couple because that would give more security for our baby?”

“Yeah. I mean, maybe?”

“But . . . we’re not a couple. We’ll be a family, but not the usual kind.”

She squeezed her hands together in her lap. “I know that. But it’s just a feeling. An instinct, like you said. When you were holding me, it felt so good, and I didn’t feel like I wanted anything more.”

“So . . . you’re saying you don’t really want . . . uh . . . ” Why was this still so hard to talk about with her? “You just want to be held? That’s enough?”

“Yes. I think so. If . . . if you don’t mind.”

He smiled at her. “That, I can do. I don’t have much experience with cuddling, though. So let me know if I do anything wrong.”

“You’re really okay with it?”

“Why wouldn’t I be? But . . . are you sure I’m the one you want to cuddle with?”

She considered that. “I’m not asking for exclusive cuddling rights. We can both cuddle with other people if we want to. Maybe I’ll even cuddle with Alya. Since it’s just about being close with someone and not . . . anything else.”

He put his hand over hers, his chest lightening with relief and gratitude that she’d found a way to turn this incredibly uncomfortable thing into something harmless and comfortable between friends. “Maybe I’ll cuddle with Nino.”

Marinette let out a tiny snort of a laugh. “Which one of you is pregnant?”

“What, guys can’t do a little nesting-slash-bonding to feel close to someone?”

“If you do, Alya will get jealous and want to get between you, then I’d feel lonely and want to join.”

“I’d be okay with that.” His best guy friend _had_ talked about wanting to confront any weirdness that remained between them. Would that be taking it too far? But Marinette laughed like the idea made her happy, so Adrien said, “I’ll definitely put a group cuddle on the schedule.”

She giggled and leaned against his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her.

“How are you doing?” he asked softly. “It’s getting late. Do you want to go to sleep, or do you want that back rub now?”

“Back rub,” she said. “But . . . can we just sit here for a few minutes first?”

He laid his cheek on her head. “Whatever you want.”


	64. Chapter 64

_I screwed up_ , said the text on Adrien’s lock screen.

He had been reluctant to check his phone, not wanting to interrupt Sunday lunch at the mansion (Since when had he started thinking of it as ‘the mansion’ instead of ‘home’?), but when his phone kept buzzing, he thought it might be urgent.

“Please excuse me,” he said, scooting back from the table. “I need to take this.” He left his father and Marinette alone to continue their discussion of fall trends and went into the foyer. Unlocking his phone to see the rest of the texts, he was surprised by the sender.

_Pierre?_ Adrien hadn’t talked to the father of Chloe’s baby in weeks. She’d shown absolutely no interest in even trying to talk to the boy she thought beneath her, and Pierre had left her alone, so Adrien had put the whole matter out of his mind until it seemed like something needed to happen.

Apparently something had happened on its own.

Adrien scrolled back up to the top of the text string.

_Adrien, please help._

_You’re Miss Bourgeois’s friend._

_I don’t know who else to ask._

_I screwed up._

Even though his brain immediately tried to come up with the worst possible scenarios, Adrien took a deep breath and called Pierre.

“Adrien! Thank you for calling!” Pierre’s voice was breathy and desperate.

“Pierre, calm down and tell me what’s wrong. Is it about your and Chloe’s baby?”

“No, it’s about—well, not the baby herself. It’s—it’s me. I—Ungh, I messed up so badly.”

Adrien took a seat in the plush foyer chair, hoping that it would help him stay calm so he could keep Pierre calm. “What happened, Pierre?”

Pierre sucked in two deep breaths and let them out before continuing. “I’ve been keeping my distance from Miss Bourgeois. I know she doesn’t want to see me. I get it. I . . . I’ve tried to accept it. But I still watch her when she’s around. I can’t help it. My heart aches so badly, and she’s so beautiful, and I still can hardly believe it’s _my_ baby she’s carrying.” He was starting to ramble, but he paused to reorient himself. “There are rumors among the staff that she’s claimed the father of her baby is XY.”

Adrien winced in sympathy. It couldn’t be easy for anyone to hear the girl he loved had made up a story about who her baby’s father was rather than admit it was him. “Is she still saying that? I’ve tried to tell her it’s a bad idea.”

“Yeah, most of the staff didn’t believe it,” Pierre acknowledged. “They’d never say anything to her face, of course, but it’s not hard to check the hotel registry to find out who was here on that day.”

“So what did you do that was wrong?” Adrien asked. “Did you tell one of the staff you’re really the father?”

“No! I would never betray her like that. But . . . ” His voice turned sheepish. “I . . . I can’t help watching her. I guess I wasn’t very careful about it. Some of the other staff started to notice. And then they noticed how hard she worked to avoid me. One of them must have said something to her father.”

_Oh, no._ It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t as bad as some of the possibilities that had been winding through Adrien’s head. “You’re saying Chloe’s parents found out it was you?”

“I can only assume so. I was fired an hour ago and told I was banned from the hotel. My manager seemed confused at the order and said it had come from the top. They must still be trying to keep it quiet.”

“Pierre . . . I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say.”

“I’m worried about Miss Bourgeois. I haven’t seen her since then, and she still hasn't ever let me talk to her. I’m worried this will put her under more stress and that it’ll be bad for her and the baby. I was hoping you could check on her.”

Adrien sighed. “Of course. I’ll talk to her. I’m sorry you lost your job over this.” Adrien wasn’t actually sure how old Pierre was, if he relied on his job to live or if he lived with family. “You’re still in school, aren’t you?”

“Yes. I was working to save up for college, since my parents don’t have much money. I’ll have to come up with some reason to tell them I got fired. I can’t tell them about the baby when Miss Bourgeois won’t even acknowledge it’s mine. But I’ll be all right. Just please see that she’s okay. And . . . if you wouldn’t mind . . . let me know how she’s doing later.”

“I will.” Adrien’s heart went out to the other boy—but why wasn’t Pierre being more assertive in trying to win over Chloe? “Pierre, if you feel that—”

The front door flew open with a crash, and Chloe herself awkwardly marched into the foyer, one hand cradling her large belly and the other wiping away tears. “Adrikins!”

From the other end of the line, Pierre asked, “She’s there?”

“Yeah,” Adrien said, staring at his distraught friend. Even pregnant, she sure knew how to make an entrance. “I’ll talk to you later.” He hung up and walked over to Chloe. Sabrina was right by her side, and her butler—Pierre’s uncle, Adrien recalled—was behind her, carefully shutting the door. Adrien reached out to give her a hug, since she looked like she needed it. “Chloe—”

Chloe smacked his hands away and sobbed.

“Sorry!” Adrien yelped. This was confusing. What happened to the girl who normally leapt into his arms as an everyday greeting?

“No, _I’m_ sorry!” Chloe wailed.

Adrien raised an eyebrow at Sabrina, who leaned closer to him and whispered, “Chloe’s been finding it hard to be around boys lately. She says it’s something about their smell.” When Adrien cast a confused glance at the butler, Sabrina waved a hand. “Oh, he doesn’t count.”

_I do not understand her_ , Adrien thought but smiled at Chloe from a safe distance. “Why don’t we go to my room and talk about what’s bothering you?” His father and Marinette had to have heard her entrance. She sniffled and nodded, so he led her and Sabrina into his room, leaving her butler in the foyer to explain where they were if Gabriel came out of the dining room.

It was strange how cavernous and foreign his own bedroom felt after a month of living with Marinette. He did kind of miss his own bed, though. The chaise longue really wasn’t very comfortable to sleep on long-term.

The girls followed him to his couch, and Adrien sat on one end while Chloe sat way at the other, with Sabrina right between them. There were awkwardly large spaces between all of them, but Adrien tried to ignore it. _It’s better than the alternative_ , he thought, not sure how he would have dealt with a frisky Chloe. _She’s actually less pouncy than usual now._

“What’s up, Chloe?” he asked.

She sniffed, and Sabrina handed her a tissue from her purse. “You can say ‘I told you so’ now. Daddy found out I lied about XY.”

“Chloe, I’m not going to say that because it wouldn’t help anything. But I am curious why you came to me.”

She blew her nose. “I need your help, Adrien.”

“I’m not going to help you lie to your parents again, if that’s what you mean.”

Chloe shook her head vigorously. “It’s too late for that now. They want to give my baby away!”

Adrien flinched. “They what?”

Chloe sniffled, and Sabrina reached over to pat her knee. “Daddy asked me if my baby’s father is actually that busboy. I tried to say no, but that stupid boy must have told someone! Daddy and Mom said they forgave me for lying because of how awful it is, which they are _completely_ right about. But then they said they’d take care of everything and had already made arrangements to give my baby to an adoption agency once she’s born.”

Adrien frowned. “They didn’t ask you about it beforehand?”

Another loud nose blow and vigorous head shake.

“I take it that’s not what you want?”

Her denial was less definitive this time. Curling her shoulders in, she pressed a hand to her large belly. “No. I want to keep her.”

“I’m a little surprised.” Pleasantly surprised. “You were in denial about it for so long, and after you had to acknowledge it, you’ve been so . . . Well, I can’t really blame your parents for assuming you didn’t want to keep your baby.”

For several seconds, Chloe didn’t respond, only sniffled and blew her nose again. “I . . . didn’t really know I wanted her until my parents said I’d never have to see her again after she’s born. They sounded like they were doing me a favor!”

“They probably think they are,” Adrien said softly. “You’ve kind of given most people the impression that you don’t really want to be a mom, Chloe.”

“Of course I don’t want to!” she snapped. “Not right now, anyway!” Her burst of anger vanished. “But . . . but I am. And I don’t want to lose it.”

“Have you told your parents that?”

“I tried to, but Mom said I was just confused by my hormones. Daddy thought I was trying to put on a brave face. They said I didn’t need to worry about anything, that they’d take care of it. I don’t know what to do. Adrien, what do I do?”

Adrien considered the problem. He knew what it was like to have overbearing parents who tried to control every aspect of his life, even his own child. But he hadn’t really been able to figure out a way to handle it himself. How could he help her? If it hadn’t been for Marinette’s support—

His spine stiffened. _That’s it._ “Chloe, wait here a minute. I’m going to get some help.”

#

_There’s nothing to be jealous about_ , Marinette thought. _I’m sure she’s been in his room lots of times. They’ve known each other since they were kids. They wouldn’t do anything weird, especially since Sabrina’s in there with them. Besides, he has Kagami._

She knew any jealous feelings she had were ridiculous, especially since she had no right to be jealous about Adrien even if he _was_ doing something with Chloe. But no matter how much she told herself that, she couldn’t get rid of the feeling.

“Marinette?” Gabriel asked from the head of the table. He’d come back and resumed their meal after checking on the noise that had turned out to be Chloe’s unexpected arrival.

“Sorry!” She glanced down at the spoonful of soup held halfway to her mouth. How long had she been trying to talk herself out of feeling jealous? “I got distracted. What were you saying?”

“We were discussing your opinion of Sven Brightwood, out of New York.”

“Right!” She racked her brain for the name. Hadn’t she seen some articles about him? “He’s nice looking, but definitely not as handsome as Adrien.”

Gabriel smirked. “I would agree. However, I was more interested in your opinions of his _designs_.”

She cringed. Right. Of course. _Think! A world-famous fashion designer is asking your opinion on fashion! Say something intelligent._ “Um . . . ”

Luckily, she was saved from having to pull a good answer out of her distracted mind when the distraction himself entered the room. “Excuse me, Father. Can I borrow Marinette for a minute?”

“Certainly, son.” Gabriel stood up from the table. “We were basically finished. Be sure to check in with Nathalie before you leave.”

“What is it?” Marinette asked Adrien once his dad was gone.

He offered a hand to help her up from her chair. “Chloe’s having a crisis. I think you can help her. If you’re willing. I know you two don’t really get along.”

Once she was on her feet, Marinette didn’t release Adrien’s hand but didn’t quite hold it, either, waiting to see what he’d do. “What is it about?”

Adrien walked with her toward the foyer, keeping her hand in his. “Her parents found out about Pierre.”

Marinette wished she could have been surprised by that, but once she’d heard about Chloe’s lie, she’d known it was only a matter of time before the situation blew up. “What happened?”

They entered the foyer and headed for the stairs to Adrien’s room, his hand still wrapped snugly around hers. “I didn’t tell her this, but Pierre called me just before she came in. That was why I left the dining room. Apparently the staff already didn’t believe her lie, then someone saw how much he was watching her, and they put it together and then told her father. Chloe seems to think Pierre told someone, which he insisted he didn’t, but I can’t tell her that without telling her I’ve been talking to Pierre, which she might not be happy about.”

“Why does she have to be so difficult?” Marinette sighed.

They went in, and Marinette was irrationally pleased to find Chloe and Sabrina sitting stiffly on the couch.

Her mind metaphorically slapped her heart. _See? You were being an idiot._

Trying not to look like she’d been thinking anything at all, Marinette took a seat between Adrien and Sabrina.

“Her?!” Chloe asked incredulously. “ _She’s_ your help?”

“You know Marinette’s smart, Chloe,” Adrien said, “and she really does want to help you with your baby situation. Please talk to her and hear her out.”

Chloe pouted dramatically and turned her face away, but she said, “Fine. I _guess_ I’m that desperate.”

Marinette rolled her eyes and glanced at Adrien, but he sent her a pleading look. “All right, Chloe,” she said to the blonde girl. “Why don’t you tell me what your problem is?”

Chloe explained the situation.

“I don’t believe them!” Marinette fumed. “How dare they just assume—”

“No,” Chloe murmured. All the bluster had gone out of her, and she looked surprisingly weak. “Adrien’s right. How were they supposed to know how much I want this baby even though her father’s a nobody when _I_ didn’t even know?”

Marinette’s irritation shifted from Chloe’s parents to Chloe herself. “Pierre is _not_ a nobody, Chloe. Just because he’s not rich or famous or—”

Adrien put a hand on her arm to stop her. “I don’t think she’s ready for that right now,” he said softly.

Looking again at Chloe, Marinette could see her putting her walls up and decided Adrien was probably right. “Fine. All right. Forget Pierre for now. Chloe, the way I see it, your parents are treating you like a child, so they see your child as their responsibility. Since her father’s not famous like they thought, their . . . interesting perception of people has apparently decided that, like her father, she’s not one of _your_ type of people but one of _his_ type of people. The ‘less than’ type of people. And even though I think you’re all being elitist morons about that”—she glanced at Adrien to let him know she really _wasn’t_ going to rant about it right now—“to them that means it’s obvious that you wouldn’t want to be saddled with a ‘less than’ child. They don’t see your daughter as worthy of being their granddaughter anymore, now that they know who her father is. They probably don’t even think of her as _your_ daughter but as _his_ daughter.”

Chloe was watching her with thoughtful, narrowed eyes. “So? How do I fix it?”

“You have to change their perception—about you and about your daughter. They need to realize that your daughter is _your_ daughter, and they need to stop seeing you as a child but as a woman who can make her own decisions about whether she wants to raise her child or not. Do you know how you do that, Chloe?”

“Obviously, I don’t,” Chloe snapped.

Marinette smiled. “All you have to do is be yourself. You’re Chloe Freaking Bourgeois: Queen Bee, queen of her domain, queen of her own life. Own it. Live it. Just like you have for as long as I’ve known you. And that”—she pointed to Chloe’s belly—“is Chloe Freaking Bourgeois’s baby. Is Queen Chloe going to let some old meddlers take her princess from her? Who are they to decide Queen Chloe’s daughter isn’t exceptional?”

Chloe’s eyes sparked to life. “They’re no one!”

“That’s right. If you want to be a mom, Chloe, you own it. You walk right up to your parents and you tell them that your baby is yours and they will not be giving her away to some stranger. You tell the world that you’re proud of your daughter and you won’t let anyone imply she’s not every bit as worthy of the Bourgeois name as you and your parents. Got it?”

“You’re right!” Chloe tried to shoot to her feet, but she wobbled and needed help from Sabrina before she got there, not that she let that bother her. “I’m Chloe Freaking Bourgeois, and my baby is the best baby in the world! Sabrina, let’s go!”

As Chloe strode toward the door, her chin high in the air, Sabrina beamed with gratitude and gave them two thumbs up before scurrying after Chloe.

When they were gone, Adrien put his arms around Marinette’s shoulders and hugged her. “I’m so proud of you,” he said, his breath in her ear. “That was amazing.”

Marinette blushed and soaked in the feel of his hug before he pulled back, keeping one arm around her. “I feel kinda dirty,” she said.

He chuckled. “I can’t believe you said all that. I know her usual attitude bothers you. But I think you’re right. That was exactly the pep talk she needed.”

“Normal Chloe may be annoying,” she said, “but Forlorn Chloe is downright depressing. Though I’m not sure I did that baby any favors. Chloe doesn’t exactly have a great role model for motherhood. But if she’s serious about being a mother to her baby, she deserves the chance to do it.”

Adrien pulled her tighter against his side. “I know one thing. _You’re_ going to be a _fantastic_ mom.”

Marinette’s heart fluttered wildly at the assurance in his voice. She hoped he was right.


	65. Chapter 65

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was supposed to be a Ladybug/Cat Noir date, but it turned into mostly Adrien/Marinette fluff. That kind of thing is why this story is so long. Oh, well, guess we'll do the date next chapter.

To Ladybug’s surprise, Cat Noir answered his communicator on the first beep.

“What a coincidence, Milady. I was just about to call you.”

“It’s unusual for us to be transformed at the same time when there isn’t an akuma.” She held her communicator very close to her face so she could whisper. She didn’t want to be heard by anyone else in the house when she was talking with Cat Noir. She was in the bathroom, about to take her nightly shower, and had only meant to transform for a minute to check for any messages from him. “There _isn’t_ an akuma, is there?”

“Not that I know of. I’m just making my daily check-in call to my Bugaboo.” He grinned, holding the communicator above him at arm’s length and making a sideways peace sign with the other hand like a vain girl taking a beach selfie. He was even lying on a pink and white striped lounge chair.

_Wait a minute. I recognize that fabric._ Her stomach lurched. “Cat Noir, where are you?”

He glanced around as if checking. “Marinette’s terrace. It’s such a nice spot, I like to drop in sometimes when I’m around.”

_No, no, no!_ She’d left Adrien doing homework in her room. What if he heard sounds from the roof and went up to check? What if Cat Noir looked inside and saw Adrien? Cat Noir would think—Wait. No. He wouldn’t think she was cheating on him because he didn’t know that she was Marinette. But still. “I know you think she’s your friend, but we shouldn’t really be friends with regular people, Cat Noir. The more you’re around her, the more likely it is that she might learn your identity.”

Cat Noir actually pouted. “Relax, Ladybug. I’m not here to visit. I’m just taking a little break.”

“From what? There haven’t been any akuma sightings today. How much time do you spend wandering around as a superhero for fun?”

Cat Noir thought about it. “Not as much as I’d like to. But fine. I’ll leave as soon as we finish talking. I wanted to check if you have any plans for Saturday.”

“Not that I know of.”

“Good. I managed to score a couple tickets to the premiere of our new movie.”

“Our new movie?” she asked as if she hadn’t seen it mentioned on the Ladyblog about ten times already.

“The sequel to that cartoon they made about us. You know, the one that grossed over a hundred million euros worldwide but you said we couldn’t demand licensing fees for it because we can’t sign legal contracts without using our legal names.”

“Oh, that one. You got tickets, you say? How’d you manage that?”

“The truth is that all I had to do was mention that Ladybug and I might be able to stop by and they handed them over, but I’d rather you believe that I used my charisma and connections to finagle it. What do you think? We could have a date together in public without it being obvious that it was a date. Unless you’re ready to go public with our relationship?” He kept his tone light, but she could hear the honest hope in his voice.

“I’m not quite ready for that yet,” she said, softening the blow with a smile. “But a movie date sounds really nice.”

“Excellent! Meet me on the roof of the theater at ten, Saturday morning.”

“See you then, Kitty.”

#

Cat Noir tried to work in one last flirt, but Ladybug hung up before he could. She was probably in a hurry. He ducked back through the hatch and hopped to the floor before detransforming.

Whenever he transformed to check his messages while at Marinette’s house, he usually went up to the terrace so he could have some warning if Marinette came back while he was leaving a message for Ladybug. Now he saw there was another good reason to do it. If Ladybug had such a good memory for places that she had recognized the chair he was lying on, she would probably recognize Marinette’s room, too (since she’d been in there to fight a villain once or twice), and he really did not want to try to explain why he was in Marinette’s room. In addition to possibly giving away his identity, which she wouldn’t like, it might make Ladybug think some things about him which weren’t true but were a little complicated to explain.

Adrien got dressed for bed, then finished getting his homework organized in his bag just as Marinette came back in. She was wearing her cute grey nightgown, with a pale pink robe that didn’t even try to cover her large belly, and her hair tied up in a loose bun. Adrien couldn’t help smiling at her. “It’s getting late, but we have a little time. Want to curl up and watch an episode of something?”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” she said distractedly, looking up toward the ceiling above her bed.

Had Adrien left the hatch open or something? He checked with a glance. Nope, it was closed, and he didn’t see any footprints on her blanket, either. “Everything okay?”

She jumped. “Yeah! Everything’s good! Everything fine here?”

“Yeah. Should it not be?”

“Nope! Normal’s good, just like it should be.” There she went again, getting flustered for no apparent reason. At least these times were getting rarer.

“Okay, then. Good. TV?”

“Sure.”

While she queued up the next episode of a school comedy anime they’d been watching, Adrien pulled the chaise longue over and squeezed it lengthwise into the spot her desk chair normally was, so it was facing the computer monitor perpendicularly.

Marinette looked at it funny. “Shouldn’t that be the other way?” she said, waving to imply a parallel alignment with the desk.

Adrien grinned. “Nope.” He sat all the way back on the chaise with his feet on either side of it and opened his arms to her.

Her face turned as pink as her robe. “O-oh.”

Adrien’s hands dropped, along with his mood. He’d been so happy after making a date with Ladybug, he hadn’t stopped to ask Marinette if she even wanted to cuddle. He started to swing his leg to the other side and get up. “Sorry. I should have asked—”

“No! I—I do want to. You just surprised me.”

He put his foot back down where it had been. “So cuddling like this is okay? It’s whatever you want, Marinette.”

She fidgeted with the hem of her robe. “We could try it, anyway.”

“All right.” He leaned back and held out his arms again.

Marinette started the video, then put one knee on the chaise, then the other, slowly turning so her back was to him as she sat down.

He wasn’t actually sure what to do with his hands, so they naturally landed on her waist to help her scoot back to lean against him. Except she didn’t have as much waist as she usually did, so his hands ended up flat against the sides of her belly as she inched back into his embrace. Putting her hands on his knees for leverage, she leaned back until her bun rested on his shoulder like a pet tribble. Then she straitened her legs out in front of her.

“Settled?” he asked, lifting his feet up so his legs were stretched on either side of hers, though he had to bend his knees a bit to get a comfortable angle.

She took her hands off his knees and held them in the air. “Uh-huh.”

“You can lay your hands on my legs if you have to,” he told her. “Whatever’s comfortable for you. It’s fine.”

She let them lightly rest on his legs, and he realized his hands were still on the sides of her belly.

“Is it okay for me to hold you like this?” he asked. “You don’t mind me touching your belly, do you?”

She shook her head slightly, and her bun bumped him on the cheek and tickled his nose. “No, it’s . . . it’s fine. It’s . . . kind of nice.”

“Good.” He wrapped his arms a little more around her, cuddling her to him more comfortably. “I like touching your belly. It makes me feel connected to our son, even when I can’t feel him move.”

He couldn’t see her face from this angle, but he could see her ear turn red. “Then, you can do it more . . . if you want.”

“Thank you,” he breathed. “And if you ever don’t want me to, don’t hesitate to say so, okay?”

“Okay.”

The intro song ended, and they started watching the show. As minutes passed, Marinette relaxed even more into him, her body soft and warm, her belly like a warm basketball under his hands. _I really like holding the two of them_ , he thought. He couldn’t wait to actually hold his son in his hands, to see his face and feel his tiny fingers. The thought still terrified him, and he was still worried about whether he was up to the task, but mostly it excited him.

Right in the middle of the show, Marinette reached up with her toe and hit the space bar on her keyboard, pausing the video. “Adrien?” she said softly.

“Mm-hm?”

“You know the Ladybug and Cat Noir movie sequel that’s coming out?”

The slight sleepiness that had been creeping into him blew away. What a random topic for her to bring up. Or maybe not, since they were watching something animated now. “Yeah?”

“Did you work on that one, too?”

“Yeah.” Not recently, though. They’d actually started making both movies at once, so he’d recorded the audio for it at the same time he’d done the first one.

“Are you going to the premiere?”

_Oof._ He hated to lie to her. But it was part of the whole secret identity deal. “I’m not. I have a date that day, so I won’t be making an appearance at the premiere.” At least _Adrien_ wouldn’t. “Besides, it’s only a sequel. It’s not a big deal like the first one.”

It had to be his imagination that her body had twitched when he’d mentioned his date, because she let out a big breath and relaxed even more into him. “Oh. Okay.”

“Why?”

“Just curious.”

“Did you want me to do something that day?” He’d forgotten to check with her again. Why did he always lose sight of everything but Ladybug when he was thinking of the girl he loved?

“No. I . . . I actually have a date, too.”

“Oh, good.” That worked out well. “Where are you guys going?”

“Um, a . . . movie. But not that one.”

He laughed softly. “I think you have to have a special invitation to that one. But you can see it later if you want. I guess your parents aren’t catering it this time?”

“Ah . . . no.”

Adrien didn’t ask if that had anything to do with the director getting akumatized last time because of food that wasn’t supposed to have been in the building. But that reminded him . . . “I never got to eat that macaron you gave me at the last premier. What flavor was it?” He thought he remembered her saying it was his favorite, but passion fruit was kind of an obscure favorite, so he didn’t know how she could know it.

“Oh, right, that.” Her ear turned red again. “It was passion fruit.”

“Wow, that _is_ my favorite. How did you know?”

“I, uh . . . must have heard it somewhere? I don’t even remember now.”

“Now I _really_ wish I could have eaten that cookie. I bet it was delicious.”

“I may have another one around here somewhere.” She leaned forward, taking her warmth with her. As she got up to search her desk, Adrien lamented his empty hands. She turned back to him and held out a single, wrapped cookie. “It’s probably kind of stale now. It’s been in there a while. I used to make them regularly, but . . . I haven’t made any since before you moved in.”

Eagerly, he took the cookie, tore off the wrapping, and took a bite. Yeah, it was a little stale, but it was still just as delicious as he’d hoped. “This is so good, Marinette,” he said before popping the rest of the cookie into his mouth. “Any time you feel like making these again, I will not complain.”

She giggled and crawled back onto the chaise. “I’m glad you like it.”

With that yummy flavor still on his tongue, he helped Marinette get settled again and wrapped his arms around her, snuggling her close, holding onto her belly. She put her hands over his, warming them from both sides, and his son bumped lightly against his palm. Adrien breathed in the light, sweet scent that must have been Marinette’s soap, and sighed in contentment. “You might want to hit play, or I could end up falling asleep right here.”


	66. Chapter 66

“Are you sure we can’t just go in through the roof?” Ladybug asked. They were already up there. The stairwell door was probably unlocked.

“We don’t want anyone to think we’re party crashers,” Cat Noir said. He handed her a lanyard with a pass hanging from it and dropped another one around his neck. “So we have to go in through the front and show our tickets.” When she still hesitated, he cocked his head. “What’s wrong, Milady? You don’t normally have a problem being seen by crowds and the press.”

“That’s when I have a mission and I know what I’m doing. I don’t know what to do at a movie premiere.” She almost wished they could have come without the costumes, but there was obviously no way to do that without revealing their identities to each other.

He grinned and leaned close. “Don’t tell me you’re shy. I wouldn’t believe it.”

“I . . . I . . . ” _I can be._ “ . . . just don’t want to do something stupid that would make anyone lose faith in me.” _More than I already have._

Cat Noir laid his hand on the top of her head. “Ladybug, relax. Everyone loves you. You could fall on your face out there and everyone would love you for being relatable.” He moved to stand beside her and took her hand in his. “And if you’re really that uncertain, then maybe in this instance you could follow _my_ lead.”

“You go to a lot of movie premiers?” she teased. When he hesitated like he wasn’t sure if he should say anything, she jerked back. “Wait, don’t answer that!” If he was the type of person who did to go a lot of movie premiers, that really narrowed the field as far as his identity, and she did not want to think about that yet.

He laughed softly. “It’s just a walk down the red carpet and some small talk before the movie. Smile. Wave. Be friendly. It’s not as special as it sounds.”

“Right. Okay. I can do that.” As long as Adrien really wasn’t going to be there. What if he’d decided to show up after all? What if his date had been canceled? If she had to make small talk with him as Ladybug, she didn’t know if she’d be able to keep herself from blurting something out. And what if he made small talk with Cat Noir? There was no reason for either of them to feel jealous even if they did find out about each other, but the idea of them talking like casual strangers without knowing about their mutual connection to her made her uncomfortable. Not that she could exactly figure out why that was.

Following Cat Noir’s lead, she swung down to the sidewalk, where the red carpet started at the street. They’d hit a lull between cars arriving, so when they made their entrance from the sky, the gathered fans and reporters cheered wildly.

Cat Noir gave the crowd a huge smile and waved. Ladybug did the same, scanning the crowd for anyone she knew. She spotted Alya and Nino.

As they strolled down the red carpet (she was sure that she’d have tripped if she’d been forced to do this without her powers), Alya called out, “Ladybug! Cat Noir! Quick photo for the Ladyblog?” She was waving wildly, her phone already up and ready. Behind her, Nino was smirking, like he just knew they would come when Alya called.

Which they did, because Alya was her best friend, but it wasn’t like Nino knew that. Maybe he just thought anyone should come when his fiancée called.

When they stood in front of the couple, on the other side of the rope line, Cat Noir draped an arm over Ladybug’s shoulders and made a show of trying to kiss her cheek. Ladybug played along, rolling her eyes and pushing him away with one finger to his nose.

Alya and Nino burst out in laughter, and Alya snapped the photo. “That was amazing, you guys. Thanks so much.”

“Anything for our favorite reporter,” Cat Noir said, winking, then pulled away from Ladybug to stand with his arms loosely crossed.

“Watch it, cat boy,” Nino said with mock sternness, grabbing Alya by the waist. “Flirt with your own woman.”

Cat Noir cast a sly glance aside to Ladybug and purred, “Oh, I do.”

Ladybug elbowed him in the ribs.

“So,” said Alya, looking pretty sly herself, “does this mean you two are finally a couple?”

“It means nothing,” said Ladybug. “You know how he is. He’s always like this.”

Alya eyed the two of them. “Hmm. That ever changes, you’ll give me the scoop, won’t you?”

“No promises.” Ladybug grabbed Cat Noir’s wrist to pull him along. They smiled and waved as they walked down the rest of the red carpet, then showed their passes to the guy at the entrance and went in.

As soon as they entered the theater’s lobby, a loud voice cried, “Ladybug!” Jagged Stone broke out of the mingling crowd and came toward her like an eager puppy. He gasped her shoulders in excitement and kissed both her cheeks. “It’s so good to see you!”

She beamed at her favorite rock star. “It’s good to see you, too, Jagged. It’s been a while.”

Jagged looked her up and down. “Look at you! You’re glowing! Isn’t she glowing, Penny?”

A woman whom Ladybug recognized as Jagged’s agent appeared next to him, the way she usually did. “Yes, Jagged, she’s glowing. How are you, Ladybug?”

“I’m doing . . . ” Ladybug trailed off as she saw the large, pregnant belly that Penny was sporting. “ . . . pretty good?”

“How are _you_ doing?” Cat Noir asked Penny, looking as surprised as Ladybug was.

Penny’s hand—the one that wasn’t holding her clipboard—moved to cradle her belly. “We’re doing very well, thank you.”

Jagged put an arm around Penny and pulled her against his side. “Penny and I are engaged!” he announced. “You’ll come to the wedding, won’t you?”

“I . . . uh . . . ” Ladybug found it hard to speak with her mouth hanging open.

“It’s not for another six months,” Jagged continued. “It’s gonna be smashing! The most rock and roll wedding ever! You’re invited, too, Cat Noir. I’ve gotta have superheroes at my wedding.”

“We’d love to!” Cat Noir answered. “Right, Ladybug?”

“I’ll . . . definitely try. Six months is a long way off, though. I’ll have to see how things look when it gets closer.” And she’d have to see if Marinette got an invitation, too. Not that she was important enough to expect one, but Jagged did seem to like her. Maybe he’d remember to invite her. If so, she’d have to decide which side of her had to blow him off. Why did exciting things sometimes have to be so stressful, too?

“We’d love to see you there if you can make it,” Penny told her.

Ladybug glanced again to Penny’s belly and gulped. “I don’t want to pry, but is that . . . because of Fairy Grandmother?” She looked about the right size for it.

Penny nodded, but she was smiling. “Best bad thing that ever happened to me, though it was . . . a lot more traumatizing for Jagged.”

Jagged grimaced. “Let’s not bother them with the details, love. Yeah, those first few months were rough, but it did make me see Penny more clearly. She’s not just an amazing agent. She’s an amazing woman. And I might never have noticed if not for that villain and our little rock star here.” He hugged Penny closer, putting one hand on her belly.

Cat Noir laughed. “You two look great together. Congratulations.”

_Too bad that didn’t happen with Adrien_ , Ladybug thought, forcing a smile. But when it came to romance and hope of romance, Adrien was her past. Cat Noir was her present, and maybe even her future. And it wasn’t fair to him to pine for Adrien while Cat Noir was standing right there. “It’s really good to see you two, but maybe there are other people we should say hello to? I don’t want to accidentally snub anyone.”

They made the rounds, chatting politely with the director and the teen actress who voiced Ladybug. The actress said she was a huge fan of Ladybug’s and really admired her, which somewhat made up for what Ladybug had considered a less than mind-blowing performance in the first movie. But maybe no one ever liked how they were portrayed in fiction, not that many people got the chance to have an opinion.

As they talked, Ladybug surreptitiously scanned the room, but she still saw no sign of Adrien. His date plans must have gone on without a problem, then. She felt a strange mix of relief and disappointment.

Then the front doors opened, and Gabriel Agreste walked into the lobby with Nathalie at his side. Ladybug’s breath caught, looking to see if Adrien was with them. But the two of them paused to survey the room and continued inside. The doors shut behind them. Adrien wasn’t with them. Ladybug released the breath she’d been holding.

#

After watching Adrien’s dad walk into the theater, Alya shared a worried look with Nino, then dragged him by the arm a safe distance away from the crowd. “Do you think they’ll be okay?”

Nino frowned. “I’m sure they’ve run into situations like this before. Why should Adrien’s dad recognize him? _I_ didn’t recognize him, and I see him on both sides of the mask way more often than his father does.”

“You’re right.” Alya let herself relax. “They’ll probably be fine.”

“Are we a _hundred_ percent sure that’s Adrien?” Nino asked.

Alya cocked an eyebrow at him. “Of course we’re sure. Luka basically confirmed it.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s just so weird. My boy never flirts with girls, even when they’re literally throwing themselves at him, but as soon as he puts a mask on, it’s all he can do. He even flirted with you like it was nothing, even with me and Ladybug both standing right there, and even though he told me that he still remembers seeing you naked after the gas attack and it makes him really uncomfortable.”

Alya wished she’d thought to find her clothes before attempting to pry her friends apart, but she’d been in such a stage of shock and panic, she’d barely even been aware of her nakedness. But there wasn’t anything she could do about it now. “That’s because his flirting doesn’t actually _mean_ anything. Except when it’s Ladybug. But I get what you mean; he really is so different, it’s hard to believe it’s really him even when I know. So you can be excused for not figuring it out. I, on the other hand, really should have figured my girl out. She’s got the same confidence, sense of justice, and humor no matter which side is showing.”

“Yeah, none of the rest of us are _that_ different when we’re transformed. But Adrien’s like a totally different person. Even the girl who’s crazy in love with him doesn’t recognize him when he’s begging for her attention.”

“Adrien’s the only one of us with a parent who tries to control every aspect of his life, and the only one of us who was raised with a public image to maintain.”

Nino nodded sadly. “I think my boy’s seriously repressed. But it makes me wonder how much of which side of him is the real him. He’s my best friend, but do I even really know him?”

Alya’s gaze slid toward the theater. “It makes _me_ wonder how much he’ll bother repressing if he talks to his dad while his identity’s safely hidden.”

#

Cat Noir’s heart leapt into his throat when he saw his father walk into the room. _Calm down_ , he told himself. _You knew he was planning to come. You can do this. He won’t know who you are._ He’d spoken with his father as Cat Noir before and Gabriel hadn’t suspected anything. He could do it again.

As Cat Noir watched, Gabriel’s head turned, eyes locking with his. For a moment, he could have sworn there was a flicker of distaste in Gabriel’s expression, but it smoothed quickly into boredom. Cat Noir had no idea what kind of expression he should be showing the celebrity fashion designer, so he looked away, trying to be discreet about it, pretending that they hadn’t made eye contact.

Chloe’s parents were present, and they went over to greet Gabriel and Nathalie. Cat Noir couldn’t hear what they were saying, but from their expressions, it looked like they were making small talk and then offering condolences for Nathalie’s pregnancy, which Nathalie appeared to accept with a polite nod and little else.

Did she regret her pregnancy? Probably. Why wouldn’t she? Unlike Jagged and Penny, Gabriel hadn’t suddenly decided to fall in love with the woman who had unrequited feelings for him just because they were having a baby together. For every Jagged and Penny or Miss Bustier and Victor, there was a Gabriel and Nathalie or Mireille and Marc.

Gabriel had at least acknowledged Nathalie’s child as his own, though. He’d finally put out a simple statement on the matter a couple months ago, after the initial gossip about the situation had worn down a lot and other major and minor celebrities were admitting to being caught in Fairy Grandmother’s attack, late enough that the news caused much less of a stir. Jagged hadn’t come out publicly yet, but if he was going around loudly announcing it to people, it wouldn’t be long before the news hit the media. It was a safe bet that his producer was advising they keep it quiet, hence the lack of official statement, but Jagged didn’t think there was any point, hence the openness about it with his friends.

“Ladybug!” a high voice called out across the room. Chloe had appeared from the hall, her stride as confident as she could make it. Even while seven and a half months pregnant, she could still enter a room as if she owned the place.

Cat Noir smiled. It was good to see her back to her old self. She’d been that way all week at school, without any moments of weakness that he’d seen. And if she was here, things must not have gone too poorly with her parents. Hopefully she’d gotten things sorted out with them.

Chloe threw her arms around Ladybug in a hug made very awkward by both Ladybug’s stiff reaction and their two huge bellies, not that Chloe noticed. “It’s me! Queen Bee! Remember?” She stepped back and rubbed at the small of her back. “I forgive you for not giving me my Miraculous again when you made your little team. I know you’re just thinking of me and my baby. But you’ll put me on it once my pregnancy’s over, right?”

“Uh, we’ll see, Chloe,” Ladybug said uncomfortably.

“Of course you will. Why wouldn’t you?” Chloe’s attention suddenly shifted to something behind Cat Noir. “Oh! Hello, Mr. Agreste.”

“Forgive me for interrupting, Chloe.” Gabriel’s smooth voice made Cat Noir’s nonexistent hackles raise in alarm. “I only wanted to greet our resident superheroes.”

“Of course. Ladybug, don’t forget about me!” Chloe waved and left—without ever having acknowledged Cat Noir’s presence.

He turned slowly to face his father. “Gabriel Agreste, right? You like cartoons?”

Gabriel looked down on him like an eagle sizing up his prey. Was this how he always looked to strangers? “Not especially. But my son is one of the stars of this film, and I’m one of the film’s investors.”

“Investor, huh?” Cat Noir said. “You must be a big fan of Ladybug and I, then, to put your own money into making movies about us.”

Even after a lifetime of being raised by the man, he still found Gabriel so hard to read. Was that amusement or disgust in the slight twitch of his mouth? “A simple business decision, I assure you. Not that I don’t appreciate what you two do for the city.” He looked to Ladybug, and his expression softened with concern, very slightly. “I do worry that you’re continuing your heroics even in your condition.”

Ladybug’s posture didn’t display her usual confidence. Apparently she really could get nervous when she didn’t have a bad guy to fight. “Hawk Moth hasn’t given me much of a choice. As long as he keeps akumatizing people, someone has to be Ladybug, and I’m the one who was chosen. But thank you for your concern. Cat Noir and the rest of my team have been keeping me safe, now that I’m not exactly at the top of my game.”

Gabriel hummed in thought. “Yes, it’s a very impressive team you’ve gathered. Where did you come across so many Miraculouses? Are there others?”

Cat Noir’s hand fisted reflexively, but he knew his father was naturally curious. And he did have that book with all those superheroes in it. He’d said he used it for inspiration. If so, it made sense that he’d be interested in the existence of more actual superheroes and where they came from.

Ladybug shook her head. “I’m sorry, Mr. Agreste, but I can’t talk about that. It’s top secret superhero stuff. If Hawk Moth ever found out, everyone could be in trouble.”

“I promise I won’t tell him,” Gabriel said, and Cat Noir thought he detected a trace of humor.

“I’m sure you wouldn’t,” Ladybug said, “but we still have to keep our secrets. As an artist, you should understand that. You wouldn’t tell just anyone where you get your inspiration from, would you?”

Gabriel’s eyes narrowed, and Ladybug’s widened. Just a little, both of them. Cat Noir noticed it, but he couldn’t tell what they were reacting to. After all, Ladybug was right about Gabriel’s secrecy when it came to where he got his ideas, or at least some of them.

But something had become tense in that moment, and Ladybug was uncomfortable, so Cat Noir put his hand on her arm and said, “Excuse us, Mr. Agreste. The movie’s starting soon, so Ladybug and I should go find our seats.”

“Of course.” Gabriel was back to showing only boredom. “Don’t let me keep you.”

#

_Don’t worry about it_ , Ladybug told herself as she and Cat Noir made their way to their seats. _You probably didn’t just accidentally reveal your identity. Adrien’s dad probably doesn’t even remember what he told you about the Miraculous spell book being his source of inspiration. You don’t mean enough for him to remember something that trivial._ That might have been true before, when she was just one of Adrien’s classmates. Now that she was the mother of Gabriel’s grandchild, Gabriel probably paid a little more attention to her. Hopefully, though, since he’d told her about using the book for inspiration when she _had_ just been one of Adrien’s classmates, months before she’d ever become the mother of Gabriel’s grandchild, he’d already forgotten it. _Even if he does remember, that one little comment was far from conclusive._

As they moved down the aisle, Cat Noir pointed to a couple of seats that were still open in the middle of a row. “I think those are ours.”

Ladybug looked at the people sitting between her and her seat, who she’d have to squeeze past to reach it. Not too bad under normal circumstances, but it would be pretty uncomfortable with a pregnancy belly. Luckily, she had another option.

After taking a moment to gauge the distance, Ladybug jumped into the air and landed lightly on top of the back of her seat. The people around her reacted with surprised, then cheered as if she’d just done a neat trick for their amusement. She waved and smiled, pretending that had been the reason. The next moment, Cat Noir landed on the seat back beside her to more applause, and he made a showy bow before dropping to the floor and offering his hand to help her down.

Once they were comfortably settled in their seats, she leaned close to him and whispered her thanks.

“I’ll always give you my hand, Milady,” he whispered back. “Can I have yours?”

She was ninety-five percent sure he meant it as an actual marriage proposal, but she was far from ready to answer something like that right now. Instead, she smiled and slid her hand toward him, keeping it low so they wouldn’t be spotted.

His fingers curled around hers. “I’ll take it.” His hand shifted to interlace their fingers. “For now.”

It felt nice, so they stayed like that as the movie started.

There were some ridiculous things about the film (they were still all-in with the ‘Ladybug’s afraid of cats’ thing), but she couldn’t argue that the movie wasn’t fun. While the first movie was strictly a superhero movie, this one actually speculated on what Ladybug and Cat Noir were like when they weren’t in costume. There were no transformations, of course, and no kwamis, so the characters changed in the same ‘duck into a phone booth’ kind of way that superheroes in movies usually did. The hilarious part was what they were like outside of their costumes. Ladybug, the movie proposed, was actually a beefy girl with a long ponytail and dark eyeliner who was so bossy she was almost a bully. Cartoon Cat Noir, on the other hand, was actually a timid nerd. The really outrageous (and, if Ladybug was honest, brilliant) twist was that they knew each other in their real lives and actually went to the same school. In fact, she had a crush on him and kept beating up people to defend him, but he had no idea she was doing it because she liked him and ended up afraid of her, constantly jumpy around her because he thought she was a violent thug.

Ladybug hadn’t laughed so much in months.

When she came down from a laughing fit over a particularly funny scene, she saw Cat Noir gazing at her with a silly smile on his face.

“Are you even watching the movie?” she asked, careful to keep her voice very low to avoid disturbing the others around them.

He leaned in so close that she could feel his breath on her ear. “Yeah. But I like watching you more.”

She felt her face heat and was glad for the darkness of the cinema. Cat Noir had already raised the arm rest between them out of the way, since neither of them were using it. He leaned closer to her, and she leaned in to meet him until their shoulders were touching. Not so close that the people behind them would suspect they were romantically involved, hopefully, but close enough that they could keep talking softly without anyone else hearing.

“In case you’re wondering,” he said, facing the screen again, “I’m not really a wimpy nerd.”

“And I’m not really an overbearing brute.”

He laughed. “It _is_ pretty entertaining, though. But they got one thing wrong. If I knew you in real life, I’m sure I’d be in love with that version of you, too.”

Except he did know her in real life, sort of. He knew Marinette as Cat Noir, anyway, and given that he flat-out rejected her not-actually-real-but-he-didn’t-know-that love confession, she was pretty sure he was wrong. But she couldn’t say that. “The actor playing you isn’t bad.”

His mouth twisted. “I guess he does an okay me, but his voice sounds really weird.”

“What? It does not.” _He sounds beautiful. Amazing. He sounds like an angel._ Although it was true that he didn’t quite sound like the normal Adrien. When playing Cat Noir, his tone was sharper and a little lower, and as the nerdy boy behind the mask, it was higher and almost airy.

“Meh,” Cat Noir humphed. “They should have at least gotten a professional actor instead of hiring the investor’s son. Nepotism, much?”

“That’s not fair. He’s clearly doing his best.” She could tell that he wasn’t a very experienced actor, but his performance really wasn’t bad. “I’m sure he’ll get better if he keeps doing it. His mom was an actor, you know. He probably inherited some of her talent.”

Cat Noir looked at her in surprise. “How do you know that?”

“Uh, I . . . ” She couldn’t tell him Adrien had told her. “I might have looked him up once, after I saw the first movie.”

“Still, that’s a pretty obscure piece of trivia, isn’t it? She was only in one movie, and it’s hardly ever shown.”

“And how do you know that?” she asked.

He rubbed the back of his head with the hand that wasn’t holding hers. “I may have looked him up, too. I had to know more about the guy who’s playing me, right?”

That made sense. But she didn’t want to hear him criticize Adrien anymore, even if she could at least kind of see where he was coming from, so she focused on watching the movie.

After about a minute, Cat Noir asked, “You really think he did a good job?”

“He did great.” She gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. “He’s making you look good. Promise.”

His hand tightened around hers, but he didn’t loosen it so quickly. “I’m glad you think so, Milady.”


	67. Chapter 67

The following Saturday was sunny and cool, and it saw Marinette strolling through the city with a smile on her face and as much of a bounce in her step as her pregnancy weight and swollen feet would allow.

Adrien had left earlier in the morning for a photoshoot, only after she’d insisted that she was feeling great today and wouldn’t need him. The shoot was the first one for Juleka and Marc, a simple catalog ad to get their feet wet, and Adrien wanted to be right there, helping coach them through it. Marinette certainly didn’t want to take that away from them. According to Adrien, the two of them had been doing really well in their lessons, and Gabriel was open to trying them out in actual work, since Adrien had been having to cut way back on what he was able to do. Hopefully, they’d get enough experience while Adrien was away that by the time he was able to get back to his usual workload, they’d have established themselves as models worth using as more than just temporary replacements.

After he’d left, Marinette had worked for several hours on a coat design very subtly inspired by Plagg, hoping to one day be able to gift it to Cat Noir. It was a project she could only do when she was alone, to avoid too many questions, so she’d wanted to get as much done on it as possible. But the cheerfulness of the day had eventually made her desperate for a reason to get out of the house. When her mom had casually mentioned that they needed a few groceries, Marinette had eagerly offered to make a trip to the market.

She took her time getting there, strolling down a bustling street of shops and cafés. Some dresses in a shop window caught her eye, and as she stood admiring them, a familiar reflection crossed her peripheral vision.

Spinning to see who had just passed by down the sidewalk, she saw the back of a dark bob that it seemed like she ought to recognize. The young woman wearing it turned her head to speak to the young man beside her, and Marinette saw her profile.

 _Kagami._ Marinette stared after the other girl. She hadn’t seen Kagami in a while, and Adrien hadn’t mentioned her much. (They tended not to get into specifics about their dates or relationships.) Despite being as heavily pregnant as Marinette, Kagami’s walk was much more graceful. It must have been because of all that fencing training. Marinette considered catching up to them to say hello.

As Kagami and the young man walked along, a child ran out of a shop and into their path. He nearly ran straight into Kagami, but the young man smoothly put an arm around her waist and pulled her out of the child’s path. Marinette had yanked enough people out of the way of danger to know it didn’t usually mean anything, but there was something overly familiar about the way the young man touched her waist. It was enough to prick Marinette’s suspicion.

The young man kept his hand on Kagami’s waist just long enough to make sure she was steady, then clasped his hands loosely behind his back.

 _Who is he, and why is he touching her like that?_ Marinette wondered. It was probably nothing. Except that Kagami’s mother was even stricter than Adrien’s father. Marinette knew from experience how Mrs. Tsurugi didn’t like Kagami having friends, although she was a little better now than she used to be. Still, it seemed like letting Kagami go out alone with a boy her age (or close to it, by the looks of him) wasn’t something she’d allow. Was Kagami seeing this guy on the sly? Or did Mrs. Tsurugi approve of him for some reason that she didn’t really approve of anyone else besides _possibly_ Adrien?

Before she fully realized what she was doing, Marinette found herself following them at a discreet distance.

She stayed far enough back that they wouldn’t notice her, ducking behind whatever was handy if one of them did start turning her way.

Her purse opened, and from inside it, Tikki said, “Marinette, what are you doing?”

Marinette pressed herself behind a tree. “Following Kagami and her mysterious friend.”

“Why?”

“Because I smell something fishy, Tikki.”

“Fishy?”

“Why is she alone with that guy? She’s Adrien’s girlfriend, so isn’t it strange for her to look so friendly with some other boy?”

“You shouldn’t invade her privacy, Marinette,” Tikki advised.

Marinette peeked out from the tree, then continued sneaking behind them, keeping to the shadows of buildings wherever she could. “I won’t. I’m just watching from a distance. There’s nothing invasive about that.”

She closed her purse so no one would spot her kwami, then continued following Kagami and the young man until they reached a park.

Andre’s ice cream stand was here today, and Kagami and the young man headed straight for it. Marinette watched from behind a tree a dozen yards away, shocked, as Kagami and the young man ordered ice cream and were given a single serving to share.

“She’s cheating on Adrien,” Marinette hissed in surprise. Her shock turned quickly to anger on Adrien’s behalf. But then she realized how strange the idea of Kagami cheating was and decided to take a closer look. Maybe there was some kind of mitigating circumstance she hadn’t spotted yet.

Kagami and the young man moved to a bench and sat close to each other but not touching. Marinette crept around so she could see them head on and squatted to hide behind a trash bin.

The young man had short, black hair and Asian features. Was he one of Kagami’s friends from Japan, maybe come to visit? He was certainly cute in his own way. His build was lean and athletic, a little taller than Kagami but shorter than Adrien.

If they’d been talking loudly, Marinette was close enough that she could have heard it, but they spoke too softly for her to make anything out. They sat together, speaking but hardly looking at each other. Kagami was the only one eating the ice cream at first, but after she worked down to the last scoop, she passed it to him.

 _So, they are sharing it_ , Marinette noted. Maybe not passing it back and forth like lovers might, but going one and then the other on the same ice cream cone was still a pretty cozy, familiar behavior.

They continued talking. At one point, the boy said something to make Kagami smile softly, which was strange, since Kagami was not someone who smiled easily. Then her hand suddenly went to her belly in a gesture that Marinette realized as her probably feeling the baby kick. The young man started slightly, his hand automatically lifting before he hesitated and left it hanging in the air.

Kagami noticed, took his hand, and pressed it to her belly. They shared a very tender smile. And then Kagami grabbed the boy by the back of the neck and pulled him into a kiss.

Marinette pressed her fisted palms against her temples and shrieked, “What?!”

Kagami released the young man—who had turned quite red in the face—and spotted Marinette. Strangely, Kagami didn’t appear ashamed or caught out at all. She simply stared at Marinette for a moment, then stood and walked over to her.

Marinette watched her approach until Kagami was standing by the trash bin, looking down at her. “Hello, Marinette,” Kagami said. “It’s nice to see you. Are you following me?” She sounded so calm and formal, not making excuses or anything.

Now extremely confused about what was going on, Marinette pulled herself to her feet. “Um, hi, Kagami. Following you? No, I—I was just here, and I happened to see you . . . ”

“Here, crouching behind a trash bin?” she asked with very little inflection.

“I . . . had dropped something! And was putting it in the trash when . . . I happened to look over and see you.” Why was she making excuses? Wasn’t Kagami the one who deserved to make excuses?

Kagami nodded, accepting this answer. “How have you been?”

“Good.” Marinette’s confusion just kept growing. Why was Kagami acting like she wasn’t cheating on Adrien? Marinette wasn’t _super_ familiar with Japanese culture, but she was pretty sure public mouth kissing wasn’t something friends did over there. “Who’s you’re . . . friend?”

Kagami glanced briefly behind her, as if Marinette might be talking about anyone else. “That’s Kyo. He’s the father of my unborn son. He would say hello, but he doesn’t speak any French.”

Maybe he figured out they were talking about him, because when Marinette glanced toward him again, he raised his hand in a wave.

Well, that explained some things, but not the cheating. Sure, Marinette and Adrien were close, but platonic cuddling was one thing. Enthusiastically making out was another. Still, why was Kagami so unresponsive about Marinette catching them? She was a little stiff, but she was normally stiff. “So, uh, you’re having a boy, too? That’s nice. So am I.” If Kagami had acted like any normal person caught cheating would, Marinette would have berated her and tried to talk her back into line. But she just didn’t know what to do with this.

“Yes,” Kagami said. “Adrien mentioned the two of you were having a son. Congratulations.” And now she was talking about Adrien, actually bringing up the subject of him on her own.

“Th-thank you.”

Kagami stared at her with a completely blank expression. Like some kind of pregnant robot.

“Okay, well, good to see you!” Marinette began edging away. “I need to get some groceries and get back home.”

“Goodbye, Marinette,” Kagami said in a way that would sound ominous coming from anyone else.

Marinette agonized over the encounter for hours.

_Should I tell him? I don’t want to hurt him, but he needs to know his girlfriend’s cheating on him. I’d certainly want to know if Cat Noir was kissing some other girl behind my back._

_But what if he doesn’t believe me? What if he thinks I’m making it up out of jealousy?_ Would Kagami admit to it? What if she didn’t? Adrien would be forced into a position where he had to choose who to believe, and either choice would hurt him. Believing Marinette would mean his girlfriend was cheating, but believing Kagami would mean the mother of his child was making up lies about the girl he loved.

_But it’s better for him to know now rather than later. If Kagami’s cheating on him now, who’s to say she wouldn’t continue it?_

When Adrien came home that evening, Marinette was still so uncertain what to say or not say, she couldn’t get two sentences out to him, not even during her foot rub. Which she was sure he picked up on. The concerned looks he gave her over dinner spoke for themselves.

That night, after Marinette came back into her room after getting ready for bed, she almost hoped to find Adrien already asleep. But of course it was too early for that. He was sitting on the chaise longue, reading a book, but he put it down as soon as she came in.

“Is everything okay, Marinette?” he asked.

“Y-yeah!” She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Because you’ve been acting nervous around me all evening. Did I do something wrong?”

“No, you didn’t! It’s—I—I just have a lot on my mind. Like school and my projects—and the baby! Can’t forget the baby.”

“If there _is_ anything wrong, you know you can tell me, right? If you want to, I mean. If you think talking about it will help.”

Was that really true? “I . . . I need to do some stretching.”

For a long time, she had preferred to do her pregnancy exercises when he was out of the room, but she’d gotten so used to the stretches and how they helped her feel better, she’d lost some of her embarrassment about them. And Adrien never really _watched_ her do them. Even when he was in the room, he found something else to do, like read, and only came over if she asked for his help.

“Want to watch something?” he asked once she finished, without looking up from his book.

“No. It’s getting kind of late. I should probably go to sleep soon.”

“Want to cuddle for a little while first?”

Her nerves wanted to say no, but she’d been alone for most of the day and her body ached to be held. “Y-yeah,” she said timidly. It was mortifying to feel like she physically _needed_ his touch. But at least it hadn’t ever again escalated to wanting to push him down and have her way with him.

He smiled at her and set down his book, scooting back in the chaise and opening his arms. She went to him, snuggling down against his back with his legs on either side of her, his arms wrapping around her and his hands pressed to her belly while his chin rested on her shoulder. He wrapped her in himself like a blanket, safe and warm, and it was absolute bliss.

 _If only this feeling could last forever_ , she thought. But it couldn’t. Because this was nothing but instinct and hormones, and he didn’t want a romantic relationship with her, and she had Cat Noir for that, and he had Kagami—

_Kagami._

_I have to tell him._ It was the right thing to do. Hard, but right.

“Adrien?”

“Mm?” The sound vibrated against her neck, sending pleasant tingles across her skin.

“I ran into Kagami while I was out today.”

He picked his chin up off of her shoulder. “Oh? How was she?”

“Doing well. She was . . . with a guy.”

“Alone?” Adrien asked. So it wasn’t something he’d expected to hear.

 _Keep going. You can do this._ “He looked Japanese. She said he was the father of her baby.”

“Oh! That must have been Kyo.”

“You know him?”

“Not exactly, but we’ve met briefly, and Kagami’s told me about him.”

“Adrien, I . . . ” She took a deep breath. “I don’t know how to say this. They looked . . . comfortable with each other. They shared an ice cream. I even . . . saw them kiss.”

“Really?!” Adrien’s voice in her ear was full of surprise, but it wasn’t the shock and betrayal she’d expected to hear. Not at all. “That’s great!”

Marinette sat up and turned around as much as she could to gape at him. “It is?!” Did he and Kagami have an open relationship? Was that the real reason why he was so okay with snuggling with Marinette? But neither of them seemed like the type.

Adrien was positively beaming. “Of course! It sounds like she’s really getting to like him. I’m so happy for her.”

“But—but—” Marinette stammered. “She’s _your_ girlfriend!”

For a second, Adrien had the most confused expression, as if she’d said something in a totally different language. “Uh . . . what?”

It was a good thing Marinette was already sitting, because she was afraid she’d have lost her footing with the way he threw her off-balance. “Is . . . n’t she?”

After another second or two of staring like they each thought the other was crazy, Adrien burst out laughing. He laughed so hard, the movement made her own body bounce. “Is that what you thought? Kagami isn’t my girlfriend, Marinette.”

The world around her felt like it was spinning too fast. She shifted onto her knees so she could turn and face him better. “But she’s in love with you. And you said you love . . . well, you said you love someone, and I figured it must be her. Because she’s so amazing, and you two are close.”

He tried to hide his dying laughter behind his hand, but not very hard. “We’re good friends, and she is amazing. I don’t know what makes you think she’s in love with me, but I’m pretty sure that’s not true.”

“But you . . . you said you love a girl even though she’s having another guy’s baby.”

“That’s true. But Kagami isn’t the girl I love.”

“Then who is?”

He looked away. “Um, it’s kind of a secret. I would tell you in a heartbeat—I’d tell the whole world—but she still wants to keep things under wraps for now. I’m still working on winning her over, so I think maybe she doesn’t want to tell anyone until she’s sure about me.”

How could any girl not be sure about Adrien? Was the girl completely blind and stupid? “Does she have really strict parents or something?”

“I actually don’t know. But the problem is more, uh . . . ” He looked uncomfortable, like he got sometimes when he was talking about the press.

“Does she not want to deal with your fame?” She couldn’t exactly blame the girl, but how could anyone not see that Adrien was worth it?

“Sort of? She is worried about my, ah, image, but I think she’s more worried about hers.”

Marinette’s jaw dropped. “Do you mean she’s famous, too?”

“Yeeeah,” he said hesitantly.

“As famous as you?”

“Oh, she’s way more famous than me.”

Marinette’s heart fell, and she kicked herself for letting him still affect her like this. The girl he loved wasn’t just a celebrity, she was even more famous than him. How could this feel even worse than when Marinette had thought it was Kagami?

“Anyway,” he said, “it’s still in progress, and secrecy is important to her, so I can’t tell you more. Except that I really think you’d like her.”

 _Great._ Marinette tried not to show how much this news hurt. It had no right to hurt, first of all. Second, if Adrien saw that it hurt, he’d want to talk to her until she told him why, which would lead to her sharing feelings she was trying very hard to stop having for him, and the awkward apocalypse of their relationship would happen. So she smiled and said, “Then I can’t wait to meet her once you win her over.”

“Thanks, Marinette,” he said with some secret smile of his own. “Um, about Kagami, though. Or rather, her and Kyo. I don’t think she’d mind me telling you, since she considers you a friend.”

Concern for the other girl helped to banish Marinette’s hurt feelings, at least for the moment. “Is something wrong?”

“From what you just told me about them, not as wrong as I’d been afraid. I don’t know a lot of the details, but Fairy Grandmother’s gas caught Kagami and Kyo while they were fencing. They didn’t really know each other before then. But because of . . . let’s say reasons, and you can ask her if you want more details . . . her mother arranged a marriage between her and Kyo, and she agreed to it.”

Marinette gasped. “She agreed to marry a boy she hardly knows because of this?” Her sternum ached like she’d been punched, her failure as Ladybug weighing down on her all over again. It was one thing for people to choose to marry the person they got caught with, but being forced to? “Why would she agree?”

“She has her reasons. Like I said, you should probably ask her if you want the details. But that’s why I’m so happy to hear that they seemed close when you saw them. Can you tell me, when you saw them kiss, did she kiss him or did he kiss her?”

Now that she knew Kagami wasn’t cheating on Adrien, Marinette recalled the memory in a much more positive light. “She kissed him. Pretty forcefully.”

Adrien laughed. “That’s Kagami. She goes straight for what she wants. No hesitation.”

 _She hesitated with one thing_ , Marinette thought, remembering some of the exchanges she’d had with Kagami when they’d both been in love with Adrien.

“And how did Kyo take it?” Adrien asked.

“He, uh, seemed to enjoy it.” Not that Marinette was any kind of expert on reading those kinds of situations.

Adrien let out a relieved breath. “Good. Good. That makes me feel a lot better. Maybe things really will work out well for them.” Why did he look as if some _personal_ load of his had been lightened? Probably because he cared so much about his friends. Kagami, Chloe, all of them. Marinette really was blessed just to be counted among them. Adrien relaxed against the back of the chaise. Then he looked at her with half-lidded eyes and opened his arms. “Can we get back to cuddling now?”

He looked so adorable (she refused to think the word _sexy_ because she would absolutely not let her mind go there), how could she say no? She turned and leaned back into him, letting him fold her into himself again.

As she relaxed against him, he let out a small, happy sigh near her ear. “I hope things work out for you, too, Marinette,” he murmured. “I really do.”

Adrien knew so many ways to tell Marinette he didn’t love her, and he could say them all so sweetly.


	68. Chapter 68

“Ladybug?” Cat Noir asked. “Can you tell me about your family?”

They were sitting on the large balcony of a building. It was a commercial building, so no one was inside this late at night, but he’d foregone the candles just to be safe. Ladybug still wanted to hide their dates from the public, and there was a large crowd spread out on the grass below them. It was still possible that someone might look up and spot them, but without any light, they shouldn’t be able to get a photo.

He’d enjoyed watching the movie with her two weeks ago so much that he’d searched hard for another one he could take her to until he found this outdoor movie playing tonight. They were on the other side of a large crowd from it, but the screen was large enough and the volume high enough that they could still enjoy it. He’d set up this balcony with pillows and a picnic blanket, with some snacks and drinks to enjoy as they watched.

Ladybug had started the movie sitting beside him and leaning against him, and when he’s tentatively put her arm around her, she hadn’t shrugged him off. So now they sat under the stars and watched the movie, but Cat Noir could hardly follow it. The sight of her beautiful face in the moonlight and the soft warmth of her against him made him want to kiss her so badly, he had to put at least half his mental energy into not doing so.

At his question, she looked up at him, and he physically bit his lip to stop himself from kissing her. “I can’t tell you, Cat Noir,” she said. “You know that.”

“I know you can’t tell me much, but can you tell me anything?” Like a lot of old movies, this one was slow, so there wasn’t much to distract him from the way his heart could never quite settle down and from the burning in his body where he touched her. He needed some conversation to keep his mind off of how gorgeous and amazing she was. “Is it a big family?”

He waited while Ladybug thought about whether or not to tell him. Hopefully she would. The whole point of courting her was to get closer to her and convince her to marry him. That had to mean more than only enjoying each other’s company and talking about mutual interests. “It’s not big,” she said finally but didn’t elaborate.

He nodded, relieved that she’d decided to open up a little. “Neither is mine.”

“They’re very loving, though,” she said. “I couldn’t wish for better.”

He didn’t like the pang of jealousy that pricked him. “Oh. That’s good.”

Her eyes met his again, concern evident. “Yours isn’t?”

“Don’t worry, Milady, I’m not abused or anything. It’s not like that. But it isn’t . . . what I wish it was. It isn’t what I want _my_ family to be.” Too late, he realized he might have just shot himself in the foot. “I guess you could say I don’t have a great example to follow. But I’m going to do my best to forge my own path as a dad for my baby . . . and yours, if you’ll let me.”

“I don’t hold it against you if your family isn’t as great as mine.” She reached over and took his hand, the one that wasn’t curled around her shoulder. He thrilled at the gesture—not only her touch, but that she wanted to touch him. “That’s part of growing up for everyone, anyway. Forging our own path. Finding our own way of being an adult.”

“It’s hard to know where to even start, but I do have some help to figure it out. Not so much my family, but other people.”

“That’s good. I’m glad.” She squeezed his hand. He never wanted to let it go.

“My family will always come first,” he told her. “I want _you_ to be my family so badly, Ladybug. Am I making any progress?”

She smiled enigmatically. “Maybe.”

He grinned back, pulling her tighter against him, picturing it in his mind. A home with Ladybug and her baby and a couple more of their own. But Marinette and their son would need to stay close, too. And she’d have Luka, of course, and maybe they’d have more kids. They would need to see each other often. But his schedule would probably stay busy, so they couldn’t live too far away. Next door, maybe. Where they could pop over whenever they wanted.

Except they wouldn’t get breakfast together. Or dinner. And they couldn’t play video games in their pajamas. He wouldn’t be able to get woken up by his son or tuck him into bed, and he really wanted to be able to do that at least some of the time. Unless his son lived with him and Ladybug, but that would mean Marinette would be the one not able to do all those things with him, and he didn’t want to take that from her.

No, next door wouldn’t do. They’d have to all live in the same house.

He had the money for it—or his father did, anyway. He could get them a house big enough for all of them. In the morning, he’d wake up next to Ladybug and give her a kiss, and he’d go downstairs to find Luka cooking breakfast and his son at the table, jabbering the way kids do, and then Marinette would come in and he’d give her a hug and she’d go kiss their son on the head, and then Ladybug’s son would come in and ask for help checking his homework, and then Ladybug would come in with hair wet from a shower, and they’d all have breakfast together around the dining table.

“Cat Noir, are you okay?” Ladybug asked.

He opened eyes he hadn’t realized he’d closed. “Yeah. Why?”

“You’re crying.” She reached up to touch the corner of his eye. Her finger came away wet.

The smile he’d been wearing for the past several minutes grew. “Happy tears.”

“About what?”

“Hope,” he said. He couldn’t tell her how he was already planning out their future like this. Not when she still hadn’t accepted him yet. And he really couldn’t tell her about how deeply needy he was for family—so needy that he’d bring in extra people just to fill up his heart even more. So needy that he’d deliberately buy a huge house just to have an excuse to ask his close friends to live with them. What he was picturing wasn’t normal; he knew that, and he didn’t want to freak her out. “Can I ask how things are with the father of your child? Do you think the two of you will stay close once your baby’s born?” It was hard enough to picture Ladybug without her costume, but he had no idea what her baby’s father looked like. Would he want to live with them, too, so he could be close to his son? If he was good enough for Ladybug to love him, he was probably a great guy, even though the idea of living with him would be somewhat contingent on whether or not Ladybug was still in love with him by then.

“Things are . . . good,” she said, but she looked sad. “We’re good friends. He’s helping me out a lot. He’s still in love with that other girl, and it sounds like things are going well for him.”

 _I’m gonna need a bigger house_ , Cat Noir thought, mentally expanding the floor plan of the house in his mind’s eye to accommodate Ladybug’s baby’s father and his eventual wife. And maybe some extra kids.

“Will you be able to get over him?” Cat Noir asked carefully.

To his surprise, she gave him a firm nod. “I will. I have to. We both want to be involved in our son’s life, and I want to keep him as a friend and not let things get uncomfortable. He’s not for me, so I don’t have a choice.”

“So, this guy,” he said casually. “Do you think I’d like him?”

Ladybug turned her head to hide her reaction, which probably wasn’t a great sign. “I, uh . . . ” She cleared her throat. “Actually, I honestly can’t tell. But he’s a really kind and generous person, so you _should_ like him.”

“Good.”

She smirked at him. “What about yours?”

“Oh, I’m _sure_ you’ll like her.” _Or you wouldn’t have made her Multimouse._

#

Gabriel looked down the long, mostly empty table to his son. “Marinette couldn’t come today?”

Adrien finished his bite of food before speaking. “No, Father.”

“I hope she’s well.”

“Yes, she’s fine. She said she had a project she wanted to work on. She sends her regards, though.”

Gabriel carefully cut his steak. “I haven’t heard any complaints from her parents about you.”

“Neither have I,” Adrien said. “Her parents are extremely welcoming. They’re really great people.”

“You’ve been living there for six weeks now. How are things going?”

Adrien’s eyes lit up. “Really well. I’m so glad I’m able to help Marinette during this time. It feels so good to be there when she needs me.”

The regard Adrien had for the girl was clear in his voice. Gabriel almost asked if he was in love with her, but he’d denied it in the past. Most likely, when the boy inevitably came to his senses, Adrien would give himself away if not outright tell Gabriel.

“Have there been any problems?”

“None significant, Father.”

“Has she made any passes at you?” Gabriel asked, taking the opportunity to ask questions he couldn’t ask around Marinette while he and Adrien were alone. “Pregnant women can be that way sometimes.”

The intense blush on Adrien’s face was all the answer Gabriel needed, but Adrien said, “She had one day where she got a little confused, but then she figured out she just wanted to be held. So, I . . . I hold her sometimes, and everything’s fine. There’s nothing inappropriate going on, Father. I promise.”

“Good.” Even with everything that had happened and Adrien insisting on making some adult decisions, Gabriel didn’t think his son was ready to leap into that sort of thing just yet. He was satisfied with Adrien’s answer.

“How, uh . . . how’s Nathalie . . . with that?” Adrien asked.

Gabriel glared down the table at him, pushing down the anger that surged up at Adrien’s implication. “Nathalie is a professional. She does not feel the need to apprise me of her every mood, nor would I tolerate it if she did so.”

Adrien nodded and went back to eating. “Of course, Father. I’m glad she’s not being bothered by that too much, then.”

Was Adrien really just concerned for Nathalie’s well-being, or was he still trying to push Gabriel and Nathalie together? _He doesn’t know Emilie’s still alive_ , Gabriel reminded himself. He repeated that several times in his head to calm down.

Several minutes passed, silent but for the clinking of silverware. Then Adrien said, “I’ve been thinking about what we’ll do once the baby’s born.”

“I should hope so. What have you decided?”

“Well, nothing yet. I’m still just thinking. And Marinette and I haven’t really talked about it, so I don’t know what she’s thinking. On the surface, there are three choices: either the baby stays with her, I live here, and I hardly ever see my son; I come home, the baby comes with me, and _she_ hardly ever sees her son; or the most obvious, I keep living there for an indeterminate period of time to help her with the baby. Which . . . doesn’t seem like a real long-term solution. Not when they don’t have an extra room for me—since they’re turning the one extra room they do have into a nursery for Marinette’s little sister—and I don’t want to ask them to keep putting me up when I’ve got a perfectly good place to live here.”

“Mm,” Gabriel hummed. “Do I detect an incoming fourth option?”

“I do have an idea, but I would need your help. Kind of a lot of it.”

Gabriel raised his eyebrow. “Go on.”

Adrien took a deep breath, sat up straight, and looked Gabriel in the eye. “What if you bought us a house?”

Gabriel’s other eyebrow joined the first. “Excuse me?”

“We’re too young to rent any place, and I really want Marinette and I both to be able to be around and take care of our son when he’s born. Her house is too small for all of us, and her parents will be busy with their baby, so things would get crazy if we were all there. And while there’s more space for all of us here, I don’t think Marinette would be comfortable. It’s not her home, she wouldn’t have her things or her parents, and I don’t want her to feel uncomfortable when she’s trying to recover from giving birth and also caring for an infant. A new house would at least let her make her own space with her own stuff.”

Lowering his eyebrows, Gabriel stared at his son. “You want me to buy my teenage son a house for him to live in alone with a girl? And you expect me to believe nothing inappropriate would happen?”

“Not alone!” Adrien insisted, blushing at the mere suggestion of what Gabriel was implying. “With . . . uh . . . what if we moved in with some friends? More like a kind of dorm house situation?”

Gabriel considered it. “The child _will_ need a nanny, and there is no room for a nursery here.”

“Nanny?” Adrien repeated.

“Do you honestly have no idea how much attention an infant needs? I’m not going to allow you to throw away the rest of your teenage years because of”— _what I did to you._ Gabriel bit back the words—“something that was done to you against your will. My grandson will have a nanny to ensure that both you and Marinette get enough sleep, get your schoolwork done, and are able to be wherever you need to be when you need to be there. I’ll expect you modeling again within four weeks of the child’s birth, and your Chinese and fencing lessons resumed within two weeks.”

A hint of rebelliousness flashed across Adrien’s face. Possibly, he thought that Gabriel wanting to hire a nanny constituted treating Adrien like a child. But common sense won out, and Adrien reluctantly nodded. “A nanny makes sense. Thank you, Father. Does this mean you’ll think about buying a house for Marinette and I and . . . maybe a couple of our friends?”

He didn’t say, but Gabriel assumed the ‘couple of friends’ he meant were Nino and Alya. Even though he didn’t particularly like those two, Gabriel couldn’t ignore the fact that they were teenagers forced into prematurely becoming parents under Gabriel’s own roof and by his own action. “I will consider it.”

“Thank you, Father!” Adrien looked like he wanted to jump out of his seat, but he controlled himself. “One thing, though. Does that by any chance mean that you’ve given up on the idea of Marinette having to choose between handing the baby over to us or me not being involved in our son’s life?”

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “I abandoned that hope months ago. You two are obviously too stubborn to listen to sense and let me take over this responsibility entirely for you.”

“Thank you, Father. I’m glad I won’t have to argue with you about this anymore.

“Besides, Marinette has continually impressed me. I believe it will be beneficial for her to stay in your life.”

Adrien smirked. “I knew you liked her.”

 _And I know you love her_ , Gabriel thought, but he kept it to himself. He could let his son have this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I'm running late on the next chapter! Things have been so distracting recently. The next one's running long, so I'm not able to get it done. Should have it up on Friday, though! (And yes, I am still trying to stick to one chapter a day. I just fail sometimes.)


	69. Chapter 69

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for missing a couple days, guys, but this chapter turned out both longer and more complicated than I'd planned. And it went some places I hadn't planned on when I started it. (And it's a chapter that wasn't even in my outline originally. It seems like half the chapters are like that.)

“You sure you’re all right with this, babe?” Nino asked.

“Absolutely.” Alya adjusted the strap of her duffel bag on her shoulder. “You’re right; we need to face whatever weirdness there is left between us and get over it. Otherwise, Hawk Moth wins.” She rang the doorbell.

A light-colored blur appeared through the windows in the door, then the door swung inward. “Hi, guys!” Adrien took Alya’s bag from her. “Come in!”

Alya and Nino followed Adrien up the stairs to Marinette’s living room. As soon as she saw them, Marinette greeted Alya with a hug. “I’m glad you guys came.”

“Of course, girl. An overnighter with three of my favorite people? You didn’t even have to ask.”

Adrien chuckled in a somewhat dubious way. “I made your list of favorite people?”

Alya could hear the uncertainty in his tone, even though he was trying to hide it under humor. She quirked an eyebrow at him. “It’s a long list.”

“Ah,” he said, and that was it. No bravado. No return quip or vague flirt. No confidence. He thought she was serious. But this _was_ the boy who’d missed days of school because he’d thought they all hated him.

She wanted to ask him where he was hiding Cat Noir, but instead she punched him lightly and said, “But you’re in the top ten, easy. And you have to remember I have a big family, so a lot of spots were permanently claimed before I met any of you.”

The smile he gave her was soft and warm. “Thanks, Alya. That means a lot.”

Nino cuffed him on the shoulder. “Well, you’re in my top three, and that’s counting my family.”

Adrien looked genuinely flattered by that. “Thanks, Nino.”

Even though she knew she probably shouldn’t, Alya couldn’t help turning an expectant look on Marinette.

Her BFF blushed and fiddled with her hands.

Nino and Adrien looked at her, too.

Since Marinette still wasn’t saying anything and they were all waiting now, Nino prompted, “Gee, I wonder where he ranks on Marinette’s list?”

“What?” Marinette’s hand flailed, putting on a dramatic show of this not being a big deal. “I don’t know, like, top thirty?”

Adrien’s face fell, though he immediately tried to hide it with a small smile.

Alya smacked her own forehead because she couldn’t smack Marinette’s. “Ignore her,” she told Adrien. “She’s just a really big fan of the current cast of Project Runway.”

“Well,” Adrien said softly, “you three are all in my top five people.”

Alya and Nino exchanged a look, reminding each other not to correct him about almost certainly meaning top _four_ people, no matter how funny it could be.

“Or maybe top seven,” Adrien amended. “If I’m allowed to count my son and my mom. I’m not _completely_ sure she’s actually dead . . . ”

The melancholy way he said that about broke Alya’s heart. When Marinette didn’t immediately hug him, Alya did it herself. Adrien stiffened, but she didn’t loosen her hold. After a second, Nino joined in, and then finally Marinette. It was only a brief hug, but Adrien looked better—blushing, but better—when they let him go.

“All right,” said Nino, “what’s the plan?”

From the look on her face, it was clear to Alya that Marinette knew she’d hurt Adrien’s feelings but she didn’t know how to fix it without confessing her love. That girl just did not know how to act like a normal human sometimes. “My parents are out this evening,” Marinette explained, “and they said that when they come back, they’ll stay in their room, so we’ve pretty much got the place to ourselves.”

It wasn’t quite dark yet, which gave them several hours to fill until it was time for bed. “Where should we put our bags?” Alya asked.

“Up in my room,” Marinette answered. “If it’s okay, I figured you could squeeze into my bed with me, and Nino could sleep on the floor.”

Adrien cut in. “No, it’s fine; I’ll sleep on the floor. Nino can have the chaise.”

“How about we flip for it?” Nino offered. Adrien agreed, and Nino pulled out a coin. Nino lost. “Don’t suppose you have a sleeping bag around here?” he asked Marinette.

“It’s fine, Nino,” Adrien said. “I can take the floor.”

“You won the toss, dude. I’ll make do.”

“We’ll figure something out when the time comes,” Alya said, cutting the argument off. “For now, babe, maybe take our bags up?”

Nino and Adrien took the bags upstairs.

Alya grabbed Marinette’s hand and whispered, “I know you’re trying to hide your feelings, but you overshot.”

“I know,” Marinette whined. “But I don’t know how to fix it without making a big deal about it, which would be weird.”

“Just be nice to him for the rest of the night, okay? If you feel the urge to deny how much you like him so much that you’re about to insult him, ask for help or something.”

Marinette nodded. “Okay. Thanks, Alya.”

The boys came back.

“So, what’s for dinner?” asked Nino.

“I was thinking pizza?” said Marinette.

Everyone was cool with that, so she made the call, then they went to the couch and started a video game.

Despite it being the first time the four of them were alone in one of their homes since the incident, everything was mostly pretty normal. Aside from the fact that Nino seemed to be subconsciously keeping Alya between himself and Marinette. Or the way that every so often, during a loading screen, there’d be a silence that none of them knew how to fill.

When the pizza came, they sat at the table to eat.

Alya wasn’t sure what exactly Nino had thought ‘facing the weirdness’ would look like, but usually the best way to address an issue was to address it.

“About the Fairy Grandmother attack,” Alya said between bites. Everyone else stiffened, but she continued. “Things got weird between the four of us. And while Nino and I talked it out, and Marinette and Adrien talked it out, we never really talked it out between all of us.”

Marinette had already turned bright red. “What’s there to talk about? We’re over it, right?”

“You’re bright as a tomato,” Alya pointed out, “which I think means we’re not.” She could feel heat in her own face, but she didn’t let it deter her from pressing onward.

Adrien was intensely studying his slice of pizza.

Alya sighed. “I know it was only handful of seconds for you guys, but Nino and I spent _minute_ _s_ trying to pull you two apart. We had no idea what was going on, you were both acting like mindless animals, and it was freaking us way the heck out.”

Now Adrien and Marinette both were red like they’d gotten third-degree sunburns and staring at their pizzas.

“Yeah, dudes, it was messed up,” said Nino. “Especially when we knew that was how _we’d_ been right before that. You guys didn’t really ever see what people were acting like, and you don’t remember what _you_ were acting like. But you gave us an up-front demonstration of what had happened to us, and . . . well, I know it was incredibly sucky for all of us, but I’m kinda jealous that you didn’t have to see what we saw.”

Despite looking like they might pass out from all the blood in their heads, Adrien and Marinette both murmured, “I’m sorry.”

“That’s not what we’re saying,” Alya insisted. “We don’t blame you. We’re just trying to talk this all out. I know we didn’t say we wanted to actually talk about this when we agreed to come over, but now I think we need to. If you guys are okay with that.”

“Maybe we should have asked to have a therapist talk us through this,” said Nino, “and I guess we could still do that, but we’ve started now, so—”

Marinette shook her head, her pigtails waving. “No! I don’t want to talk about that in front of some stranger! It’s bad enough talking with you guys. But . . . I . . . guess we could.”

“Yeah,” Adrien said. “Sorry I didn’t notice that you guys wanted to talk about it. I do think problems are always better once you talk them through, even if it’s uncomfortable.”

Alya set what was left of her pizza on her plate. “Okay. Let’s lay our cards on the table, then. Since I started this conversation, I’ll go first. When it happened, I went from wondering, ‘What’s that strange gas?’ to naked and sore with my boyfriend inside me in the time it takes to blink. That was _so_ many leaps beyond what either of us were comfortable with, and neither of us had any idea how we’d gotten there. For half a second, before I saw that Nino was as shocked as I was, I thought . . . ” Her throat tightened around the words. They didn’t strictly _need_ to tell Marinette and Adrien the stuff that was between her and Nino, but it was all so personal and connected, and they were their best friends, it seemed necessary to give them the full picture.

Under the table, Nino put a hand on her leg and squeezed reassuringly. She clung to his hand, grateful for his support.

She forced the rest of the words out. “I thought _he’d_ crossed the line.” Marinette let out a small gasp, and Adrien’s eyes shot up to meet Alya’s for the first time since she started speaking, but Alya kept going without giving them time to say anything. “When I realized he honestly didn’t know how we’d gotten in that position either, there was so much relief, it kind of drove out all the fear. Still a lot of panic, though, and then we heard you guys going at it, and we knew it hadn’t just been us. Which was, for a moment there, also a relief. But then the fear came back—fear for you two. You were . . . ” She shook her head, trying to find words to explain their glassy eyes and tortured faces, gasping hands clutching at each other for dear life. “You just weren’t _there_. The mind-control—which I was starting to understand that it was—had completely overridden everything that made you not just _you_ but _people_. It was absolutely terrifying. And I understood that it had just happened to me. And then I realized that because you two weren’t a couple, when you came to your senses, it would be even worse for you than it had been for us. Nino knew it too, so we grabbed you and tried to pull you two apart, but you just held on tighter. Then I gave up and turned on the TV, desperate for some idea what was happening, and we saw the news. Nino was shouting at me to help, and we were both still naked, but even though my brain registered that, I couldn’t seem to care in that moment when my best friend was still in the middle of getting raped by—”

Adrien flinched hard.

“By _mind-control_ , Adrien. We all knew it, even then. You were getting raped by mind-control, too. There was enough on the news for us to get that it was Hawk Moth’s doing. He was actively attacking my friends, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. I felt so helpless. I started crying, seeing you two like that.” Alya started crying again now, but she tried to force the tears back. Nino’s grip on her hand tightened. “Nino said we should keep trying to pull you apart, that if we could get you apart before you woke up, it would be a little better. I’m so sorry we couldn’t.”

Tears dripped down Marinette’s cheeks. “I’m so sorry, Alya. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

And for the first time, Alya realized that her best friend felt immense guilt about what had happened. Alya should have known, should have rewatched the interview Ladybug did with Nadja Chamak, where she’d apologized to Parisians for failing them. Alya wasn’t just pouring out her memories and feelings to her two friends Marinette and Adrien, who’d been caught in the attack with her. She was also pouring them out to Ladybug and Cat Noir, who’d failed to prevent the attack. But Alya couldn’t comfort her about that right now. Worse, Adrien couldn’t comfort Marinette—or vice versa—because neither of them knew the other bore that guilt, too.

Alya reached across the table for Marinette’s hand, but she had it hidden in her lap, so Alya left her hand out so her intent was clear. “Marinette, stop. It’s not your fault.” She said it again, trying to imbue as much meaning into it as she could, hoping the truth of her feelings would get through. “It’s _not your fault_. It’s okay to cry, but I don’t want you to feel guilty. You couldn’t have done anything to stop it. The gas was too fast for any of us. I need you to stop apologizing. Please. For me.”

Marinette sucked up her crying, wiped at her tears, and took Alya’s hand over the table. “Okay.”

Alya looked over to Adrien. He was very quiet and still staring at his plate.

“I’ll go next,” Nino said softly. He cleared his throat and stuttered a few times before he got going. “I didn’t know what we’d done. I didn’t know how we’d gotten there. When I regained consciousness, I was stunned and horrified, but I also felt good. Sort of . . . tingly and relaxed. And something else that felt really good, and I looked down, and I was _inside_ her. But then I looked into Alya’s eyes, and the way she was looking at me, and it felt like all the blood drained out of me at once. I got off her and tried to explain, but I couldn’t because I had no idea what had happened. But she believed me anyway.” He smiled softly at her. “Because she’s the perfect woman. So . . . after that, it was pretty much what she said. Terror, helplessness, panic. I knew how bad it would be for you two, and I couldn’t stop it. I should have been able to stop it, to stop you, but I couldn’t. You were both so strong. You know how you hear stories about people lifting cars off babies because of adrenaline? It was like that. Except instead of lifting cars, you were boning.” He winced. “Sorry. There’s not a good way to put that.”

In a near-whisper, Adrien said, “I know what you mean. All my muscles were sore the next day.”

“Mine, too,” Nino agreed. “So, I wondered, ‘Is that what I did to Alya? Is _that_ what made me feel _good_?’ and I wanted to puke. But you guys needed us, so I managed to keep it together. Sort of. But I ended up being useless anyway.”

Marinette was silently crying. Adrien was staring at his plate. He swallowed compulsively like there was a whole egg stuck in his throat.

“So, that was us,” said Alya. “But you guys don’t have to get into details about how you felt.”

Nino shot her a questioning glance. With her eyes, she asked him to trust her. Maybe he hadn’t thought about the failed superhero angle yet, but without hesitating, he said, “Yeah, dudes, you don’t need to. We were there, so I think we’ve got it.”

“We wanted to get things out in the open,” she said. “And to explain it so you know that we understand if you feel like there was more you should have done and didn’t. We feel that way, too. I’d bet a lot of people feel that way. You’re not alone there.”

Maybe they heard what she was really telling them. Marinette dried her eyes again, and they didn’t immediately resume leaking. Adrien raised his face to look from Nino to Alya. Even though Alya hadn’t seen any tears fall, his eyes were moist and bloodshot.

Nino took a deep breath like he was physically shrugging off a weight, grabbed his pizza, and took a bite. As he kept working on the pizza, he said, “Anyway, the upshot is my woman’s got a hot bod, and I know that because I have something to compare it to.”

Marinette let out a sharp bark of shocked laughter. Adrien’s jaw fell to the floor like he could not believe what his best friend had just said. Alya couldn’t hold in her own laughter at Nino’s blunt topic—and mood—shift, especially when Marinette fell into a fit of crazed snickering.

Nino gave Marinette a casual wink, and she turned beet red from her hairline all the way down her neck.

Somehow, that kicked Adrien’s brain into gear. He gave Nino a look that wasn’t quite upset enough to be a glare and said, “Agree to disagree.” His eyes slid to Alya’s. “Not that you don’t have all the right parts in the right places, Alya, but I think _my_ woman wears it better.”

Apparently, Adrien’s brain had gotten kicked into the _wrong_ gear, because that had sounded a lot more Cat Noir than Adrien.

Marinette let out a squeak.

Alya bit her lip to keep from busting up even more.

Adrien’s eyes widened as he realized what he’d just said. “I mean, not—not _my_ woman. I mean—You—You know what I mean, right?”

Alya smirked. _That, my friend, is what we call a Freudian slip._

Nino released the laugh he couldn’t hold back any more.

Alya winked at Adrien. “Sure, Adrien. And you’re not so bad yourself. Right-parts-wise.”

That earned her an actual glare from her best friend. “Adrien’s parts are way better than Nino’s. Not that—I mean, not that Nino looks _bad_.” Her attempt to backpedal was so clumsy, it was a wonder she didn’t fall off her stool.

Marinette and Adrien were both blushing and glaring at their friends while avoiding looking at each other.

All their phones chimed at once, and Alya saw an akuma alert on her screen. _Saved by the bell_ , she thought wryly.

“Oh, no,” said Adrien, standing. “I’d better help Marinette get up to her room so she can lie down.”

“Right! The lightheadedness!” Marinette put a hand to her head. “Boy, I can’t wait until this goes away. It’s so annoying.”

Alya rolled her eyes. “I’ll take her up, Adrien.”

“Really? Okay, thanks. Um . . . I’d better go downstairs and . . . make sure the doors are locked.” He was already backing toward the door. “Wouldn’t want any . . . villains or . . . minions getting in.” He darted out.

Sharing a _Can you believe these two?_ look with Nino, Alya got up and pretended to help Marinette to her room. Within seconds, Marinette assured her she could lie down on her own, and Alya went back to the living room.

“So that’s how they haven’t figured each other out yet,” she said.

Nino transformed and gave her a goodbye kiss on the cheek. “Hold down the fort, babe. We’ll be back soon.”

“Take care of her, okay?”

“I always do.” He leapt through the living room window, and Alya sat down to watch the fight on TV while she waited.

Half an hour later, Carapace dove through the window, detransformed in the air, and Nino landed sitting on the couch beside Alya as if he’d been chilling there the whole time. Literal seconds later, Marinette came down from her room.

“Is it over?” she asked.

Alya muted the TV and gave Nino a grateful peck. “Yep, it’s over.”

Marinette looked around. “Where’s Adrien?”

“Uh, he’s . . . ” Alya spoke slowly, stalling while she thought of something.

The door to the stairwell opened, and Adrien came in.

“Right there,” Alya finished.

Adrien spotted Marinette and smiled. “How are you feeling? Better?”

“Yep, fine now.”

Alya exchangedraised eyebrows with Nino. These two would drive them both crazy one day. It was so hard not to blurt out the truth to them, but she trusted Luka when he said that it wasn’t the right time.

Marinette and Nino joined them on the couch, Adrien dropping the half-full pizza box on the coffee table on the way to his seat. No one said anything, so Adrien asked, probably without thinking, “Where were we?”

Alya smirked. “We were deciding which of us looks better naked.”

Nino snickered. Marinette and Adrien turned pink.

“I-I don’t think doing were what that’s we,” Marinette garbled.

Adrien held his hands up. “Okay, look. There’s no need to talk about that anymore.” Then his expression shifted in a way that Alya found fascinating. It was as if Adrien were physically shoving Cat Noir in front of him. “After all,” he said smoothly, his attention squarely on Nino and Alya, “only one of us here literally gets paid to look good.”

Marinette giggled and relaxed.

Alya couldn’t help a giddy smile, seeing them like that. Even without the costumes, even without knowing each other’s identities, he still instinctively jumped in to distract attention and shield his lady.

They were going to be adorable beyond words when they finally figured each other out.

“You’re right, Adrien; I guess that settles it,” Alya said, then patted Nino’s knee. “Objectively, babe. To me, you’re still the hottest.”

Nino chuckled. “So, are we all cool with the fact that we’ve all seen each other naked?”

Marinette blushed at him. “It’s not a big deal, right? We—we all have bodies. We knew that. It’s not like we saw anything we didn’t know was there.”

“I’m pretty used to other people seeing me undressed,” Adrien said. “Not totally naked, and not you guys, but it’s not as big a deal for me as it is for you. I’m . . . mostly bothered by the fact that I saw you girls that way. I don’t want to keep thinking of it, but my brain won’t let it go.”

“Adrien,” Alya said, “Marinette and I know you’re not a creep. We know you wouldn’t . . . _dwell_ on those memories or think about it the way some other guys might. As long as you’re trying not to think of it, we’re not going to hold it against you—either of you”—she looked to Nino to make sure he knew he was included—“if your mind wanders there now and then. Right, Marinette?”

Her friend nodded. “It’s not like . . . like we’re that different in that regard. As long as we all try not to think about it, we’ll forgive each other if it still happens sometimes.”

“Good,” said Nino. “So, if we’re all agreed on that, then there doesn’t need to be any weirdness, right? We can be mature about this.”

Adrien nodded. “You’re all my friends, and who you are as people is much more important to me than what the outsides of you look like.” He gave Marinette an uncertain glance, as if he was asking her something, but she didn’t seem to understand, so he continued hesitantly. “About a month ago, Marinette was having a hard day, and she ended up needing my help getting out of the shower.”

Alya’s eyebrow shot up. Marinette squirmed uncomfortably, but she didn’t tell Adrien to stop talking.

“Except she didn’t ask for help; I had to go in when I got worried about her,” he went on. “She was huddled up under the water, which had gone cold by that time. When I saw her, I was afraid and worried, and I wanted to get her out and warm. That was the only thing in my head. How could I help her? I didn’t even have to try not to think about anything else, because it didn’t even cross my mind. So . . . so that other stuff doesn’t really matter that much, I don’t think.”

Alya’s stomach tightened with retroactive worry. “Marinette, why didn’t you say anything?”

“I was embarrassed.” She twisted the hem of her shirt between her fingers. “If I’d gotten sick or something, I would have told you.”

“It hasn’t happened again, has it?”

Marinette shook her head, blushing slightly for some reason. Alya wanted to ask why, but she restrained herself.

Adrien rubbed his hair. “So, it—it’s like, we all wear the same clothes pretty much every day, right. And after the first day or two, you stop even seeing it. Our skin’s just another type of clothes, isn’t it? After the first impression, you hardly even see it because you’re focused on the person wearing it. At least . . . that’s how I feel.”

“I like that metaphor,” Alya said, “but it’s kinda funny to hear it coming from a guy whose entire livelihood is built around the importance of clothes.”

“Actually,” said Marinette, “I think it makes _more_ sense coming from someone who knows fashion. Fashion is all about letting your real self shine through.”

Alya hummed as that concept sunk in.

“Dude,” Nino said. “That’s deep.”

Adrien grinned. “Marinette can talk all night about fashion theory. When we have lunch with my father, I don’t think either of them is really aware of how into it they both get.”

“No kidding?” asked Alya.

Adrien nodded. “It’s actually really fun to watch.”

“I’m sure you’re exaggerating,” protested Marinette. “But your dad is really smart and has a lot of experience in the industry, so it’s fascinating to hear his thoughts about it.”

Nino held up a hand. “Not to be a party pooper here, but I’m really not on board for a whole fashion debate right now. Are we all good about the other thing?”

The three of them nodded.

“Great!” said Nino. “Movie time?”

The mood in the room lightened. Some things were really hard to talk about, but Alya did feel better. She hoped her friends did, too. So what if she’d seen them naked? That just meant if they ever wanted to go to a hot spring together, they wouldn’t have to get nervous since nothing would be new.

(Okay, for her and Nino, it was a lot worse than just seeing them naked. What she’d seen had given her a few nightmares, and she really probably should talk to a therapist about it. But that was an entirely separate issue, which she had no intention of burdening Adrien and Marinette with further.)

While Nino queued up a movie and Alya grabbed another slice of pizza, Adrien asked Marinette if she wanted a foot rub.

“Oh, yes, please,” Marinette answered. “I didn’t notice until you said that, but they’re really aching.”

She scooted toward the middle angle of the couch so she could lean back and stretch her feet out toward Adrien. He took them in his lap and started rubbing one of her feet in his hands. Judging by the blissful expression on her face, he was pretty good at it.

“Hey, Nino?” Alya said.

Nino looked at her, then the other two, and laughed. “Yeah, okay. But you know I’m not very good at it.”

“Ask Adrien for some pointers. He seems to have it down.”

“He does,” Marinette sighed.

Alya sat in the corner of the couch, cozied up against her BFF but facing toward the other angle, and stretched her feet out to her fiancé. As they started the movie, Nino got to work, and Adrien gave him pointers.

Half an hour later, Marinette said she wanted a back rub now. Adrien obliged like the dutiful non-boyfriend, non-fiancé platonic friend that he was. The foot rub was really nice, and Nino’s technique had improved with Adrien’s tips, but a back rub sounded good, too. They all shifted around so the boys were in the angle of the couch with the girls sitting cross-legged on the sides with their backs to the boys, the better for Adrien to help Nino with his technique.

“That feels so good, Nino,” Alya groaned as all the small points of soreness in her back melted away. “I hope you’re taking notes.”

Nino chuckled. “If I forget anything, all I have to do is ask Adrien. How’d you learn all this, bro?”

“Lots of YouTube videos,” Adrien answered. “And practice.”

Alya leaned her head back and closed her eyes as Nino worked on her lower back. “You need more practice, babe. So much more practice.”

“Whenever you want, Alya. Just say the word.”

By the time another half-hour had gone by, Alya felt so relaxed, she could melt right into the couch. But then the little goblin in her belly pressed down on her bladder, and she had to jump up and run for the bathroom.

She made it in time, thankfully, but it took her a few more minutes before she was able to leave.

When she came back to the couch, she found her fiancé and his best friend cuddled up in the crook of it like a couple of kittens. Marinette was sitting at one end of the couch, barely holding in giggles as she watched them.

“Um . . . what’s going on?” Alya asked.

The boys were pretending to sleep, so they didn’t answer.

“It’s, uh, kind of hard to explain,” said Marinette.

Nino cracked one eye open to look at her, his mouth curling in amusement.

“Right. Well.” Alya went over to them and wedged her arm between them, prying them apart enough to squeeze herself in with Nino’s arm and leg draped across her left side and Adrien’s face pressed into her right shoulder. All three of the others burst into a fit of giggles.

“Am I missing something?” Alya asked. It wasn’t that seeing the boys cuddle wasn’t adorable. It was more that seeing how adorable they were, she’d wanted in on it.

Marinette shook her head. “Nope. My turn.” She moved over and squeezed between Alya and Adrien.

Nino was still chuckling, Marinette made a happy little sound, and Adrien let out a long sigh of contentment.

Alya snuggled into the group cuddle and turned her head to where Nino’s face rested on her upper arm and said very, very softly, “What’s this about?”

He grinned. “It was Adrien’s idea. For Marinette. He didn’t explain, but just go with it.”

It did feel pretty great, and it pleased something deep inside Alya that she hadn’t even noticed was unhappy. Probably some weird pregnancy thing.

Without moving too much, Nino unpaused the movie, and they watched the rest of it cuddled up so tightly, they could have fit another four people in the space they left on the couch.


	70. Chapter 70

Marinette woke to a voice saying, “Aww,” followed by a shutter click. Groggily, she opened one eye to see Adrien smiling at her from the top of the ladder to her bed, with Nino’s face poking up behind him. He’d been the one to take a picture.

Marinette worked to focus her eyes on the girl hugging the same pillow as her. “Alya,” she murmured. “Your fiancé’s being annoying. Go beat him up.”

Alya mumbled something unintelligible and shifted without opening her eyes.

“It’s time to get up, girls,” Adrien said gently. “Tom’s making breakfast downstairs, and we want to be able to eat before school.”

Even though the original plan had been for Nino and Alya to spend Friday night, they’d all been having such a good time that they’d stayed straight through until Monday morning.

“Adrien and I already got our showers,” Nino added, “so the bathroom’s all yours.”

Marinette hauled herself up, crawled around Alya, and let Adrien help her down the ladder.

While she was getting ready in the bathroom, Tikki showed up.

“Things sure have been bustling around here,” Tikki commented.

“I’m sorry you’ve been having to hide so much, Tikki. But I hope you at least had a nice visit with Wayzz.” Marinette hadn’t actually spotted Wayzz, of course, but she assumed Nino’s kwami must have found Tikki at some point.

Tikki giggled. “Oh, yes. It’s always nice to see the other kwamis. We played a game of charades last night while you were all asleep.”

“Can you play that game with two people?”

Tikki stared at Marinette, smiling sweetly. “You must be able to.” Since they’d apparently done so, that was a fair point.

Alya was still dozing when Marinette got back to her room, but Nino woke her up and helped her down to the bathroom.

When it was just Adrien and Marinette in her room, getting their bags ready for school, Adrien said, “How did you like this weekend?”

“It was great! Even though it was kind of cramped and there were moments where I felt bad and just wanted everyone to go away, part of me wished it could always be like this. I’ve been an only child my whole life—although that’s gonna change soon—so it’s weird to have other people my age around home. Good weird, though.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that,” Adrien said, smiling to himself. “I feel the same way.”

They couldn’t actually fit six people at the table, so Adrien, Nino, and Tom ate breakfast on the couch while loudly discussing video game tactics, and Marinette, Alya, and Sabine ate at the table. In an attempt to get the guys to realize how noisy they were being, they complained about what pregnancy was doing to their bodies in gradually louder voices until the boys caught the clue and quieted down.

When the time came, they walked together to school.

As they all took their seats in class, Marinette said hi to Mylène across the aisle. “Where’s Alix?” Marinette asked. They’d been running a little late, so there were only seconds left before class started.

Mylène shrugged. “I haven’t seen her this morning. Maybe she’s not feeling well and is taking a sick day. It must be rough being pregnant with twins.”

“I can’t even imagine,” Marinette said honestly. Alix hadn’t gotten into a lot of details about it with the rest of the girls, but this pregnancy thing was different for each of them. And with them being unusually young and it being their first experience, they never knew if a particular symptom was because of some factor (like Alix’s twins) or the luck of the draw as an individual.

Then Marinette glanced up and noticed that Nathaniel hadn’t shown up yet either. That was probably a coincidence (as far as she knew, Adrien was the only boy who’d gone so far as to move in with the mother of his child to lend support), but Marinette got a tingle of unease on the back of her neck.

Miss Bustier called the class to attention from her seat behind her desk (she’d been doing a lot of teaching from there the past several months) and told them to get out their books.

Amid the rustle of bags opening, Marinette almost didn’t hear the soft shuffle of steps in the front of the class. When she looked up from her bag, she saw Nathaniel standing near Miss Bustier’s desk. He wasn’t going up to his seat.

And he looked absolutely awful—clothes rumpled, hair messy, dark circles under his eyes.

Marinette stopped to watch him. One by one, so did everyone else.

When silence fell, Miss Bustier said, “Nathaniel, what is it?”

Nathaniel swallowed, eyes darting to meet those of his classmates but quickly looking away. “I have some . . . news.”

Marinette’s stomach fell to the floor. Something was wrong.

“Tell us,” Adrien prompted gently.

Nathaniel’s school bag was in his arms, and he hugged it to his chest. “Last night, Alix went into labor.”

Marinette gasped along with everyone else.

“At thirty-four weeks?” Alya exclaimed.

Nathaniel nodded.

“Oh, no!” Rose cried. “Don’t tell me she lost the babies!”

Nathaniel’s face snapped up to her. “No! No, they’re—they’re stable.”

“Then,” Mylène ventured, “is it Alix? Is she . . . ”

“She’s stable, too.”

They all let out a collective breath of relief. Chloe planted her hands on her desk, made an aborted attempt to get up, then waved her hand toward Nathaniel. “Sabrina, hit him for me.”

Sabrina nodded, got up, and smacked Nathaniel lightly on the arm.

“Don’t scare us like that,” Chloe snapped at him. “Coming in here looking like that and taking so long getting to the point. You made us think someone was _dead_.”

Nathaniel blanched. “No! Sorry! It—it’s not that bad. But it was . . . kind of a close thing.”

Did that mean someone had _almost_ died?

“Do you want to tell us more?” Miss Bustier asked. “You don’t have to if it’s too personal.”

Nathaniel shook his head. “No, it’s fine. She’d want you to know, I think.”

“Would?” Alya asked, picking up on the detail in his wording.

“She’s been mostly unconscious.” Nathaniel’s feet shifted. “I got the call around nine, and Jalil picked me up on his way to the hospital. When we got there, Alix’s dad was pacing in the waiting room. I told the nurse who I am and asked if I could go back where Alix was. On our way there, we saw her being rushed out of a delivery room and into a surgery room. I—I tried to follow her in, but they made me wait in the hall. While the nurse was trying to find out what was going on, I stood by the surgery door, listening. I heard the doctors’ voices but couldn’t tell what they were saying. I found out later that one of the babies was in trouble and they had to do an emergency C-section. It was urgent enough that they didn’t have time to wait for the anesthesia to take effect. But I heard Alix shout, ‘Do it!’ and then . . . and then she screamed.”

Marinette’s jaw dropped in horror. A C-section without anesthesia? The pain must have been absolutely excruciating.

Nathaniel’s face was haunted. “I’d never heard anyone scream that loud, but it wasn’t a scream of fear or even of pain, really. I mean, obviously it was pain, but it sounded more like . . . determination. When I heard that, I didn’t know what was happening, and I was so afraid, I peeked through the door when the nurse wasn’t looking. Across the room, between the doctors, I could see Alix’s face, and she looked so . . . so . . . fierce.”

“Wow,” Kim muttered.

Nathaniel nodded. “She’s amazing,” he said, not looking haunted anymore, but awed. “She’s the toughest person I’ve ever met. I saw them take one of the babies out, and she gritted her teeth while they went in for the other. And then the babies cried, and she smiled before losing consciousness.” There were tears in his eyes by the time he finished, but he was smiling.

A beat passed as everyone processed what he’d told them. Then Kim let out a loud whoop. “Yeah! Go Alix!”

“How are they all doing now?” asked Marinette.

Nathaniel wiped the moisture from his eyes with his palm. “They’re doing okay. They’ve got the boys in the NICU, but it’s only because they’re premature. The doctor said they look healthy otherwise. And Alix has been resting since then. I sat with her until a little while ago. She woke up for just long enough to get an update on the boys. I would have stayed, but I think she’d want all her friends to know what happened as soon as possible.”

“Did you get to hold them?” asked Juleka.

“Not yet. But I saw them in the incubators.” His eyes watered again. “They’re perfect.”

“What are their names?” Rose asked.

Nathaniel smiled proudly. “Daniel and Aleron.”

The reality of it hit Marinette like a punch to the sternum. Nathaniel was a father. Alix was a mother. They’d brought people into the world—people with names. And soon, so would she.

Looking aside to Alya, Marinette saw the weight of what had happened settle on her friend, too.

Adrien glanced back at Marinette, smiling with hope and anticipation.

With another loud, “Woo!” Kim bounded down from his seat to wrap Nathaniel in a bear hug and spin him around. “Congrats, man!”

The rest of their class offered congratulations and some more hugs, and several people asked when Alix and the babies would get to go home.

Once he’d been released from the enthusiastic hugging, Nathaniel rubbed his neck and said, “They’re not sure. Whenever they’re ready to leave, but that might be a couple weeks for the boys. For Alix, it depends on how quickly she recovers from the C-section. At least several days.”

Rose punched the air. “We’ll have a welcome back party for her! I’ll start planning!”

This idea was met with near-unanimous approval (Chloe opted not to weigh in), and Juleka and Mylène offered to help plan.

Marinette let out a long breath and sank back into her seat.

“I’m glad it’s good news in the end,” said Alya. “He had me worried there for a minute.”

“No kidding,” agreed Marinette. “Still, pre-term labor? Emergency C-section without painkillers? Even knowing it worked out, my heart’s still beating fast. How awful for Alix!”

Nino turned in his seat to join the conversation. “Sounds like she handled it like a badass. I wouldn’t have expected anything else from her.”

Adrien turned to join in, too. “We should go see her in the hospital if we can.”

“Hey, Nathaniel!” Alya called. “When can we visit her?”

He frowned in surprise at the question. “Let me find out and get back to you.”

Now that his news was delivered, Nathaniel asked Miss Bustier to be excused to go back to the hospital, which she granted without question. After another few minutes of excited conversation in the class, Miss Bustier got things back on track.

#

That evening, Marinette fell asleep on the couch while she, Adrien, and her parents watched a movie. When she woke, it was to the sight of Adrien curled up beside her with his head on her thigh, one hand gently caressing her belly as he murmured sleepily to it. Her parents were gone, and the TV was off.

Her heart shot into overdrive on instinct at his unexpected closeness, but the tenderness in his face melted her heart into a warm puddle almost immediately. Feeling the change in her body, Adrien’s gaze rose from her belly to her face, though he didn’t lift his head.

“Is this okay?” he asked, sounding close to sleep.

The urge to raise her hand to his head and run her fingers through his blond hair hit her, and she didn’t resist it. “Yeah. Is this?”

He closed his eyes in pleasure as she petted his head. “Yeah.”

_I shouldn’t be doing this_ , she thought. _This is too close to something not-just-friends._ But he looked so content and happy. She didn’t want to move and make him get off her lap, and his hair felt so silky, she didn’t want to stop touching it.

Inside her, the baby moved. Still such a surreal sensation. With his hand still pressed to her belly, Adrien must have felt it, because his palm flattened, pressing closer, and he let out a happy hum.

“Have you thought of a name for him?” Adrien asked.

She’d had a name picked out for her and Adrien’s first son for longer than she’d like to admit. But that was for a different future, one where she and Adrien were in love and married. Not one where her husband might end up being Cat Noir. She wasn’t sure it would be fair to her partner and possible future husband if she gave her son a name from that other future. But she did like the name, and she wasn’t entirely convinced yet that it would be a problem. “I haven’t decided yet. Don’t you have any ideas?”

“Nn-nn,” Adrien hummed a _no_. “You pick.”

It was another minute before she spoke again. “Adrien? How are we gonna take care of him?”

His eyes opened, and he sat up, grinning at her, shifting his hold on her belly to his other hand. “I have an idea about that.”

“You do? Good, because I’ve got nothing.” Every time she’d thought about it, her utter lack of readiness had terrified her, so she hadn’t done much thinking about it.

“Father’s completely abandoned the idea of making you choose between giving our baby to us and raising him all on your own.”

“That’s a relief.” Not that she’d ever have let Gabriel force her into making the choice, but she was glad she wouldn’t have to fight that battle.

“And since it would be too hard for both of us to live either here or at the mansion for the long term, he’s even agreed to buy us a house where we could all live together—with a live-in nanny to take care of our son while we’re at school and stuff.”

Marinette gaped at him. A house together? With Adrien?

“It wouldn’t have to be just us,” he assured her. “We could see if . . . anyone else wanted to live there with us, too.”

“Like Alya and Nino?” she asked.

“Sure, as an example,” he said. “With so many of our friends in the same situation as us, I’m sure we could find someone. Especially since Father has agreed to pay the nanny to take care of any babies that live there—at night and whenever the parents are otherwise occupied.”

Marinette mulled it over. On the surface, the idea was terrifying. How would she ever get over Adrien if he was always around? But he _would_ be around, one way or the other, for the rest of their lives, now that they shared a child. She would need to find a way to get over him. And having him around as a friend sounded amazing. Plus, living with more of her friends would be a lot of fun, for however long it lasted. Now that she had a child, she would never get to experience a normal dorm life in college, so this might be the closest she’d come to living with other people her age without parents around. It could be . . . a way to transition from living like a child in her parents’ house to living like an adult in her own place, even if she did it in a different way than people normally did. And she couldn’t deny that a nanny would be extremely helpful.

She smiled. “I’ll have to think about it some more, but . . . that actually sounds really nice.”

With one arm, he hugged her around the shoulders. “Great. Once you decide for sure, I’ll let Father know. And later we can talk about who else we might want to ask to join us.”

Marinette wasn’t sure why they would even need to discuss it when Alya and Nino were the obvious choices, but maybe he meant getting some secondary options in case there was room for more or their best friends had other plans.

After they got ready for bed, Adrien helped Marinette up to her bed, then crawled up to tuck the pillows and blankets around her.

“Sweet dreams, Marinette,” he said, smiling down at her. He hadn’t actually stopped smiling since she’d agreed to his plan. Without warning, he gave her forehead a peck before backing away and descending the ladder.

Tucking her in. Kissing her goodnight. How could she not lose her heart to this boy? Maybe if she had a boyfriend—no, a fiancé—there to get between them. Or if the girl he loved was there.

Was _she_ one of the others he intended to move in with them? Was _her_ baby the other one he planned for the nanny to take care of? Was that why he hadn’t immediately confirmed that he’d meant Alya and Nino? Now that Marinette thought of it, the truth was obvious.

Living in a house with Adrien, Cat Noir, and the girl Adrien loved. Logically, it did make sense. It was practical. And it probably would help her get over him.

She just needed to hurry up and decide if Cat Noir was the one for her, because living in a house with Adrien, the girl he loved, and no one of her own would probably be torture.


	71. Chapter 71

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pretty much pure fluff this chapter, but I couldn't help myself.

Four days after the birth of his sons, the NICU nurse told Nathaniel, “We’d like you and Alix to do some kangaroo care with your babies.”

He’d just walked into Alix’s room, where she and the nurse had been talking. “Kangaroo?” he asked, casting Alix a questioning glance as he moved to the wide windowsill to set his school bag down.

“Skin-to-skin holding,” the nurse explained. “It’s very good for the babies’ development. They’ve been doing quite well, so they’re ready for it.”

Nathaniel’s throat tightened, and he tried to swallow. He’d been able to touch his sons in their incubator, but he hadn’t been able to hold them yet. “What do I need to do?”

“Have a seat and take your shirt off. We’ll bring them in.”

Nathaniel could feel the faint blush on his face at her instructions. He didn’t usually like to take his shirt off in front of people, and the last time Alix had seen him without a shirt had been when everything had happened. But he pushed that thought to the to the side and took the chair to the left of Alix’s bed.

“How was school?” she asked like everything was normal, though her voice was kind of weak and her head didn’t lift off the pillow. She looked really tired; probably hadn’t gotten any good sleep since she got here. Her skin was pale, and her hair was limp. The blanket was pulled up to her ribs, but under that she only wore a hospital gown closed in the front. At least one wire disappeared under the blanket, and an IV was in her arm.

“It was good. Everyone keeps asking about you. They’re eager to visit.” After the first couple days of sitting in her room with her, she’d told him to go back to school so she could bring her the homework and tell her about what was going on with everyone. He’d resisted, but she spent a lot of her time sleeping, and her dad and brother visited often, too, so she didn’t have to be alone too much. He could still tell that lying in bed like this for so long was draining on her in itself.

Her eyes flicked down to his chest. “The nurse is gonna be back soon. You gonna get your tits out or what?”

He snorted a laugh. “Did you just tell me to get my tits out?”

“Did I?”

“Yeah. You just said that.”

“I blame the drugs.” They had her on painkillers and probably some other things. She should have been nearly recovered enough to go home, but she wasn’t.

Nathaniel took off his jacket and shirt, trying not to be self-conscious. Thankfully, the door opened a few seconds later, and two nurses came in with the incubator holding the babies.

The male nurse fiddled with some tubes and things on the incubator while the female nurse, the one who’d been here a minute ago, explained things to them. “I’m going to take the baby out and place him lying vertically on your chest. You want to hold him with one hand on the back of his head and one on his bottom. He’ll try to push away at first, but just hold him securely so he knows he’s safe, and he should settle down.”

Nathaniel’s heart jumped in anticipation. He watched, entranced, as the female nurse came around the other side of the bed and adjusted Alix’s gown. She wasn’t subtle about it.

Nathaniel caught a clear flash of breast and immediately turned his face away. “Sorry! Should I—should I move?”

Alix snorted.

From the corner of his eye, he saw the nurse look up at him in confusion, then she adjusted Alix’s gown and said, “I’m so sorry! I didn’t think. It’s . . . not exactly usual to have to worry about the mother’s modesty around the father. I should have remembered this wasn’t a usual case.”

“It’s fine,” Alix said. “Don’t worry about it. Between the drugs and the pain, I do not even care. I just want to hold my baby.”

Nathaniel turned his head to look at her, slowly until he was sure it was safe. More carefully now, the nurse situated Alix’s gown so it kept her breasts covered but left a lot of her upper chest bare. Then she carefully took one of the babies out of the incubator and laid him on Alix’s chest.

Though she didn’t have much strength, Alix raised her hands and held her baby firmly against her chest, smiling as she looked down at him. The nurse adjusted Alix’s gown to cover the baby, then she carefully wrapped some kind of fabric around Alix’s shoulders to help hold the baby in place.

Nathaniel stared in awe. The two of them were so beautiful, he could hardly breathe.

“Which one is he?” Alix asked.

“That’s Aleron,” said the nurse. She moved the incubator to the other side of the bed and took out the other baby to hand to Nathaniel. “This is Daniel.”

Eager and scared, Nathaniel held out his hands. When the nurse pressed his son against his chest, he cradled his head and bottom like she’d told him. Tiny hands pressed against him, trying to move away, but he held firm, encouraging Daniel to relax, and soon the boy’s cheek was pressed against him.

Nathaniel was so overcome with emotion, he could hardly think. He had a son—here, in his hands, living and breathing. He’d had several months to get used to the idea, but it still felt like a sucker punch. How was this possible? How could he feel so much love?

Daniel’s eyes were closed even though he was weakly squirming. His skin was pink, and his head was covered in wisps of dark red hair, just like his twin brother. It was hard to tell for sure when they were this small, but they looked identical.

The nurse wrapped a sling around Nathaniel, securing his son to him, and draped the hospital equivalent of a light blanket over his shoulders.

The male nurse checked the tubes that were still running from the babies to the incubator, then gave the female nurse a nod and left the room.

“Everything looks good,” she said. “I’ll leave you for a while. It would be good if you could hold them for at least an hour, but longer is better. If any of you need help for any reason, use the call button and I’ll be right in.” She addressed that last part to Nathaniel.

He nodded. “I will.”

She left the room, and a peaceful quiet descended.

“He’s so cute,” Alix said softly. “Can you believe we made these, Nath?”

“Not really,” he admitted, despite being able to feel the warmth of his son’s body soaking into his chest. He felt her gaze on him, and he tore his eyes away from the top of Daniel’s head to look at her. Even though she looked exhausted, there was a spark of that same fierce strength in her blue eyes that he’d heard in her voice when she’d delivered them. An urge to lean over and kiss her hit him so strongly, he had to look away so he wouldn’t give in to the temptation.

They weren’t doing that anymore. At least, he didn’t think they were, now that the pregnancy was over. She hadn’t shown any desire to kiss him since delivering the babies, though he’d had to resist it more than a few times already.

He’d known Alix for years. They’d been friends for years. Before all this happened, he never would have thought of being interested in her. He didn’t know when or how things had changed, only that they had. At some point, he’d begun to imagine a future with her.

The problem was, he had no idea how she really felt, and he was pretty sure she didn’t, either. This pregnancy had hit her hard. Who knew how much of the desire she’d had to kiss him and have him close was actual feelings for him and how much of it was hormones muddling her brain? They would need to talk about it. He would need to make sure she knew that he really did want something more than friendship with her. But not yet, and not for a while. She’d gone through a huge ordeal and was still in the middle of it, so she needed a lot of time to recover and feel like herself again. He could wait, supporting her and being her friend and co-parent in the meanwhile. They were only sixteen. It wasn’t like they were in any kind of hurry.

He kissed Daniel’s head and murmured, “Thank you, Alix. Thank you for my sons.”

She chuckled weakly. “Ditto, Nath.”

He looked up in surprise and found her smirking at him.

#

When Alix didn’t come back to school even after a week in the hospital, her friends started getting worried. But Nathaniel had told them they could visit her now, as long as they did it in small groups, so they’d all worked out a schedule right away.

As they walked down the hospital corridor, Adrien told Marinette, “I mentioned Alix’s situation to Father, and he offered to make sure she and the babies got the best treatment possible.”

“That’s nice of him,” said Marinette. She didn’t have any reason to doubt Alix was already getting the best treatment possible, but some extra assurance was always nice.

“I know,” Adrien said. “Father’s been really helpful when it comes to my friends and this whole pregnancy thing. Maybe expecting a baby himself is softening him up a little.”

 _He could certainly use a bit of softening_ , Marinette thought, but it seemed a touch too cynical to actually say.

They arrived at Alix’s room and knocked on the open door as they entered. They were met by the strange sight of Nathaniel and Marc sitting together near the window, both of them shirtless with bundles strapped to their chests in slings.

“Hello?” Marinette hadn’t meant it as a question, but her confusion turned it into one.

“Hi, Marinette. Hi, Adrien,” Nathaniel said with a smile. He had one hand holding his open sketch pad and the other cradling the bundle.

“Hi, Alix!” Adrien said, moving toward the bed.

Marinette decided to come back to the shirtless situation in a minute, after she greeted the person they came here to see. “Hi, Alix!” She held up the vase of flowers they’d brought.

Alix was sitting up in bed, wearing a hospital gown with the open end wrapped securely across her front. She had her school tablet in her hands and her history book in her lap. She smiled, lacking her usual energy even though it was clear she was trying. “Hi, guys. Hey, thanks for the flowers. Just set them over there.”

Marinette found a spot to leave them on the windowsill and took the chair next to Alix’s bed. “How are you doing?”

“I’m going stir crazy, but I get exhausted going to the bathroom,” Alix complained.

“Weren’t you supposed to be out of here within a few days?” Marinette asked.

Alix blew a limp lock of hair out of her face, then shoved it back with her hand. “The incision isn’t healing as quickly as it should. The doctors think there’s some kind of infection. But at least I’m not on as many painkillers as before.”

From the other side of the room, Nathaniel piped up. “She wanted to get some homework done so she won’t be as far behind when she gets back to class. Marc was already here, so he offered to hold the boys with me.”

Marinette blinked and looked again at the bundles strapped to their chests. “Those are the babies?”

Nathaniel grinned. “Yeah. Want to meet them?”

“Yes!” Marinette squealed. She hurried over so fast that she stumbled and Adrien had to catch her. He held her hand and helped her get to the other side of the bed.

Nathaniel moved his hand enough for her to see the baby’s face pressed against his chest. Tiny eyes, barely cracked open, swiveled toward her as she leaned closer.

“Oh, Nathaniel, he’s so cute!” she said, trying not to be too loud. She turned to Alix and repeated, “He’s so cute!”

Alix smiled. “Isn’t he? They’re awesome.”

With a quick hello to Marc, Marinette leaned in to look at the baby he held. That boy looked just the same, with the same barely-visible red hair and blue eyes.

“They’re amazing, guys,” Adrien breathed.

“This is Aleron,” Nathaniel said, indicating the one attached to himself. “And that’s Daniel.”

“Which last name did you give them?” Marinette asked. It was a question she hadn’t decided on the answer to herself, and she knew she wasn’t the only for whom it was a tricky decision.

Alix answered, “Daniel Kurtzberg and Aleron Kubdel.”

Marinette giggled. “One for each of you? Just like Rose said.”

Alix rolled her eyes. “It just seemed like the fair way to do it. Even though it might get confusing for them later.”

Marinette glanced at Nathaniel and saw a pensive expression on his face, but he added nothing. _Last names can always be changed later if there’s a reason_ , she thought, wondering what exactly the situation between those two was.

When she glanced at Adrien, she saw him frowning. “You’re not actually going to split them up, are you?” he asked.

Both Alix and Nathaniel looked uncomfortable at the question. “We don’t really know,” Nathaniel admitted. “We honestly still haven’t decided what’ll happen after they all get released from the hospital.”

Marinette’s heart twisted uncomfortably at the thought of twin brothers being split up, each raised by a single parent. It was too sad. Even though she had no help to offer at the moment, she resolved to do whatever she could to keep them together, if that was what they wanted and if she could think of anything.

But that was a problem for another day. “So, why do you have your shirts off?” she asked.

Nathaniel and Marc both blushed self-consciously. “It’s really good for babies to be held skin-to-skin,” Nathaniel explained, “especially preemies.”

Adrien nodded like he already knew all of this. “It actually improves their odds of survival, but it’s good for all kinds of developmental and health reasons.”

How much research had he done?

“Especially if it’s with the mom,” Nathaniel added. “But replacements are okay, if the mom’s too tired or needs a break.”

“And with two of them,” said Alix, “it would be hard for me to do it enough with both of them anyway. Nathaniel’s been a lifesaver.”

“I love doing it,” he responded.

Marc had been quiet so far, but now he said, “It’s pretty amazing. They’re so tiny and helpless. Even just holding them feels like so much responsibility.”

“Is this your first time meeting them, too?” Marinette asked him.

“Yeah,” said Marc. “I just came by to say hi and see how Alix was doing.”

“Then I wanted to show him some character sketches,” said Nathaniel.

“Then the nurse came in with the babies,” said Alix, “and I was in the middle of doing homework, so Marc got roped into surprise kangaroo care.”

“I don’t mind!” Marc assured her. “It’s actually . . . making me even more eager to meet my daughter.”

Marinette felt that. When she looked to Adrien, she could see that he was probably thinking the same thing.

“Could I hold one?” Adrien asked.

Nathaniel and Alix shared a glance, then they both nodded. Alix reached down to something on the side of her bed. Within seconds, a nurse came in.

“You called?” she asked Alix.

Alix nodded toward Adrien. “Our friend wants to hold one of the babies. Can you get him strapped in?”

“It’s been an hour and a half,” said Nathaniel. “Is it okay to switch now?”

“I think that’d be fine,” said the nurse. “Your boys are strong and healthy, even at their age.”

Adrien and Marinette introduced themselves to the nurse, then Adrien stripped to the waist. Marinette abruptly realized how long it had been since she’d seen his chest and turned away from him to hide her blush. Unfortunately, she turned directly toward Alix, who saw her reaction and smirked at her like a smug cat.

When it sounded like things were situated, Marinette turned back around to see Adrien standing there with a tiny baby strapped in a sling on his chest. Her jaw dropped, and her heart did flips. If he looked that good with someone else’s baby, how good would he look with theirs?

“He’s so tiny and cute,” Adrien cooed, gently cradling the baby’s head. “And he looks just like Alix.”

Alix laughed. “He’s too young to look like anyone. He just looks like a baby.”

“No,” Adrien said firmly. “He’s gonna look like you. I can tell.”

Still holding the other boy, Nathaniel smiled. “I hope you’re right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We don't know if Alix has any family other than her dad and brother, so I basically wrote this as if they're the only family she has, though she could have more that haven't been mentioned yet. And we know nothing at all about Nathaniel's family, so I'm basically not mentioning them at all. As far as their ages, Alix is 15 in Timebreaker (per English version, at least), and by this point in the story, most of them have aged up a year, so she's 16 here. We never hear which birthday of Nathaniel's it is in Evillustrator, so I made him the same age as her for simplicity. (If anything else has ever been mentioned outside the show, I don't want to know about it, since I go only by the aired episodes.)


	72. Chapter 72

Cat Noir sat with Ladybug in a rooftop alcove overlooking a big park where a festival was being held. There were stalls and lights and all kinds of people milling around, talking and laughing. As much as he loved sitting alone with her, here in the shadows, he wished they could be down there with everyone else.

“Would it be so bad if people knew we were seeing each other?” he asked.

They sat with their backs against a chimney and their shoulders touching. He held her hand, fingers intertwined.

“To be honest, Kitty,” she said, “I don’t know. It’s a gut instinct to hide it, but my gut’s been wrong before.”

“Like when you gave a Miraculous to Adrien Agreste?” Why did he poke at his own wounds like this?

She frowned. “Yeah. I guess so.”

_Ouch._ Would she be disappointed when she finally found out his identity? Or would she be relieved, thinking the reason he’d failed as Aspic was because he was already Cat Noir? Then again, he hadn’t failed as Mister Bug. She would probably say he’d failed as Aspic because he’d accepted the Snake Miraculous for selfish reasons.

And she’d be right.

_So, either she doesn’t know who I am and thinks Adrien is incompetent as a superhero, or she does know who I am and thinks Adrien is selfish and irresponsible._ When he thought about it that way, his eagerness to share his identity with her diminished considerably.

“You know I love you, right, Ladybug?” he said.

She booped the tip of his nose with her finger. “Yeah.”

“I love you so much, sometimes I do stupid things.”

“Like flirting when you should be fighting?”

“Among other things. I just want to apologize now for anything really stupid that I might do or might have already done because I wanted to impress you.”

She laughed lightly. “You’ve been doing stupid things to impress me for as long as we’ve known each other, Cat Noir. I’m used to it.”

“Then it doesn’t bother you?”

“I didn’t say that. But I know it’s part of who you are, and I like you for who you are, frustrating parts and all.”

He squeezed her hand and kissed her cheek. “I don’t deserve you, Ladybug. Though I am still hoping to win you over. How’m I doing on that, by the way?”

“As well as anyone could,” she said with a sigh. “You’re the best partner I could ask for. You’re sweet and kind and brave. And you love me, which means a lot.”

His stomach tightened. He sensed a _but_. “Then what’s the problem?”

“My heart still can’t seem to let go of the other boy, even though I know he doesn’t want me.”

Cat Noir tried to pretend that didn’t hurt to hear. “Then I’ll keep trying, as long as you’ll keep letting me try.”

They sat in silence for a while, watching the festivities below, and Cat Noir thought about the future.

“Ladybug,” he said, “I’ve been thinking about something lately. I didn’t want to bring it up, but . . . ” He’d have to face it sooner or later.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Having a baby is a lot of responsibility.” Marc had been right; even just holding one had felt like a lot of responsibility. But knowing he’d soon have his own little person who was totally dependent on others—largely him—to be fed, cleaned, kept safe . . . “My life is busy enough as it is. When my son’s born . . . ” The nanny wouldn’t be following them around twenty-four/seven. There would be times when he’d be alone with his son away from home, away from anyone else he could pass him off to. “It’s one thing to duck out on class or my other responsibilities. I can’t just duck out on an infant.” Even if there were someone around to pass the baby to, that person would get suspicious if he kept doing it right as a villain attacked.

Ladybug’s hand tightened around his. “I know.”

“I hate to say it, but . . . I don’t think I’ll be able to keep doing this once my son comes.”

“You’re right.” Her voice was soft and strained. It was as hard for her to talk about this as it was for him. “Our days as heroes are numbered. Our responsibility to Paris will be superseded by our responsibility to our children.”

“I really don’t want to give this up,” he confessed. “I love being Cat Noir.”

“And I love being Ladybug.”

“But I don’t love it as much as I love my son. Or as much as I’ll love yours.”

One side of her mouth quirked up. “Thank you, Cat Noir. I feel the same way. I hate that this is a choice we’re going to have to make.” Her expression shifted into a scowl. “But you know what really gets me?”

“What?”

“In a way, when we have to give up our Miraculouses because of this, Hawk Moth will have won. Oh, we’ll make sure he doesn’t actually get them, but he’ll still have taken them from us. And that ticks me off.”

“I see what you mean,” Cat Noir said unhappily. After everything they’d done to fight him, having Hawk Moth defeat them like this left a sour taste in his mouth. “Then we’d better try to defeat him for good before we have to give them up for our babies.”

“Right!”

After a solid minute of silence, Cat Noir asked, “How do we do that when we don’t know who he is or where to find him?”

The back of Ladybug’s head thunked against the chimney. “I wish I knew.”

#

Ladybug stopped in a secluded spot a block away from her home to detransform. It was dark now, so she knew she shouldn’t linger, but she paused to let out a sad sigh. “Even in a best case scenario now, I’ll have to give up being Ladybug soon.” She wanted to cry, but she couldn’t break down on the street, and she couldn’t afford for her parents or Adrien to see her crying or they’d want to know what was wrong.

Tikki hugged Marinette’s cheek. “I’m so sorry, Marinette. I wish it wasn’t this way, too.”

Marinette cuddled her kwami in her hands. “How long have you known it would come to this, Tikki?”

“I kept hoping you’d find a solution, but I’ve known it was likely ever since you found out you’re pregnant. Miraculous holders don’t usually have small children, and when they do, they can only manage it because they have a lot of other people helping them.” Tikki looked aside and added in a tone of disappointment, “Or they’re not very good parents.”

“I’m not giving you up yet, Tikki,” Marinette promised. “We’ve still got some time before my baby comes, and if we’re lucky, we can take Hawk Moth out before then.”

“It’s a matter of weeks, Marinette,” Tikki reminded her. “What can you do in that time that you haven’t been able to do until now?”

“I . . . ” Marinette deflated. “ . . . don’t know. But Carapace and King Monkey are going to be parents soon, too. We can’t leave Pegasus and Viperion all on their own with a bunch of newbies—not while Hawk Moth is still making stronger villains than he used to. He’s been going easy on us lately, and I think it’s because of my pregnancy. It started after he tried to talk me into giving up my Miraculous for my baby’s sake.”

“Maybe he really does have a heart,” Tikki said.

Marinette nodded. “He’s human under the mask. He stopped akumatizing pregnant women after Cat Noir threatened him, and he started going easy on us after I made it clear I wasn’t going to give up because of my pregnancy. So I think he has at least _some_ moral compass, even if it doesn’t seem like it most of the time. But once I have my baby, I think the gloves will come back off. That would be the worst possible time to try to break in new holders, especially a new Ladybug and Cat Noir.”

“Maybe you should talk to Master Fu.”

“We will,” Marinette said. “But I’m afraid he might ask us to give them up now, and I’m not ready for that yet. We need a little more time.”

“Be careful not to wait too long, Marinette,” Tikki said.

“I won’t.”

Tikki dove into Marinette’s purse, and Marinette continued toward her house. She ran into Adrien outside the door.

“Marinette!” he said, opening the door for her. “Back from your date, I see.”

“Yeah.”

Adrien glanced down the street. “He didn’t walk you home?”

His concern was touching, but inconvenient at the moment. “Oh! He, uh, dropped me off.”

Adrien cocked his head in confusion. “He has a car?”

Why did he act like he knew who she’d gone out with? He couldn’t possibly, and if he did, he wouldn’t have assumed she’d meant by car. She wanted to ask who he was thinking it was, but whoever it was, he was obviously wrong. Which she’d then have to tell him. Then he’d ask who it really was. Then she’d have to say it was a secret. It was fine for Adrien to have a secret relationship because he was dating a celebrity and was a celebrity himself. It would be suspicious for Marinette, bakers’ daughter, to be seeing a guy in secret. Even if Adrien himself didn’t care enough to investigate (and as her baby’s father, he’d have a right to want to know who might be around his kid), he might mention it to her parents, and _they’d_ want to know. He probably assumed it was someone at their school, which would make owning a car unlikely. “No, he, uh . . . he walked me to the end of the block, but then had something he had to hurry home for. I can get to the end of the block by myself.”

This answer mollified him, and they went inside. “If you ever do need a ride home, don’t hesitate to ask,” he told her. “I can have my bodyguard pick you up.”

“Thanks, Adrien. I’ll remember that.” Maybe it would be less risky (safety-wise and identity-wise) for her to pick a spot somewhere else to detransform and then call for a ride.

“Did you have a good time?” he asked, helping her up the stairs.

“Yes, it was fine. I’ve got a lot on my mind right now, though.” She let out small grunts as pain jabbed at her feet. “And my feet are sore from being out, I guess.”

They entered the living room, and Adrien said, “Why don’t I go draw you a hot bath? When you get out, I’ll rub your feet all you want. Does that sound good?”

“It sounds amazing.”

He smiled. “Good.”

When he turned to head to the bathroom, Marinette asked, “How did your date go?”

His smile drooped. “It was good. But I’ve got some things on my mind, too. With the baby almost here, there’s a lot to think about.”

He was right about that. She moved to head up the stairs to her room but turned back when she heard his voice.

“Hey, Marinette? It’s normal for parents to have to give up things for their kids, right? Even things that make them the happiest?”

Her heart ached, and her arms yearned to reach for him, but she held back. The answer to his question was _yes_. She’d soon have to give up one of the things that made her happiest. But she wanted to give him encouragement, not harsh reality. “My parents didn’t have to give up their dream of being bakers. I’m certainly not going to give up designing. What are you afraid of giving up, Adrien?”

He turned toward the door to the stairwell. “It doesn’t matter.” Then he looked at her over his shoulder and smiled in a way that was resigned but genuine. “I’m sure it’ll be worth it.”


	73. Chapter 73

“Are you sure?” Nathaniel asked, trying not to panic.

“I am so sorry,” said the thirty-something woman who’d introduced herself as Nurse Janine. “The rest of the staff wasn’t scheduled to start work for another week. I’m the only one here, and I’ve still got a lot of preparations to see to. But I can call in someone for tomorrow on, and we’ll have enough set up by then for a couple little ones. If you could just keep them with you for today, maybe two days max, we should be able to handle them after that.”

Nathaniel looked down at the stroller where his sons were sleeping. It was only sized for one baby, but they were small enough that they could both squeeze in. Especially when they cuddled together like they always did.

They were fifteen days old and still four weeks from their technical due date, but the doctors said they were strong and healthy, so he was able to take them home last night. Not that he was at all prepared to have them at his place. They’d been working off the assumption that the babies would go home with Alix when the time came, but she was still in the hospital. Neither her dad nor her brother had been keen to take care of them, but there was no reason they should have to. Nathaniel was their father, so he’d gathered up enough of the supplies they’d managed to pull together and brought them home. His family didn’t deserve to be disturbed by them either, but the twins had stayed in his room, so hopefully they hadn’t bothered anyone else too much. They weren’t exactly peaceful sleepers, though. Between the two of them, he’d gotten maybe two hours of sleep spread over the entire night.

It wasn’t that his family didn’t like the twins. They’d cooed over them and snuggled them and talked about how exciting it was. His mom had even offered to take turns caring for them during the night. But she worked a full-time job and couldn’t really afford to get bad sleep. His sons were his responsibility, so he wanted to do his best. They needed him to be an adult about this and not rely on his parents for help.

But if this went on too long—and it would, most likely—he was afraid he might die of exhaustion. He’d been hoping at least for a break during school, when the most he’d have to worry about was paying attention to the lessons. He hadn’t counted on the school’s daycare not being up and running yet.

“Okay,” he murmured, trying to plan out how his day would go with a brain that was too tired for detailed work. The first problem his brain managed to point out was, “My classroom has stairs, and I sit in the back.”

Nurse Janine said, “You could wear them in a baby sling. That would leave your arms free, and you wouldn’t have to worry about the stroller. You have a sling, right?”

Nathaniel nodded and dug through the stroller bag for it. It was a special one made for carrying two babies at once. He held it out.

“Here, let me help you get them in.”

He took off his jacket and accepted the nurse’s help in getting the sling situated over his shirt, then carefully manuvered both babies into it. They woke a little and squirmed but went back to sleep once they were settled in.

He had to admit that he liked this better than the stroller. Not only was it more convenient, he liked the feel of them against him like this, a warm weight over his chest. This whole situation was still so strange, having them there was a nice reminder that it wasn’t all a dream. It was hard not to spend all his time staring at them.

“There you go,” the nurse said when the babies were settled. She helped him get his jacket back on, somewhat hiding the sling if a person didn’t look at him from the front. “You can leave the stroller here and come in when you need to feed or change them. There’s a rocker and changing table in that corner that you can use.”

“Thank you,” he said, when what he wanted to say was, _Why didn’t you guys plan better for the possibility of preemies?_ He knew everyone was doing their best about this whole thing. It was a blessing that the school was providing free child care at all.

By the time he reached his classroom, he was a few minutes late, but he knew Miss Bustier wouldn’t call him out for it. Everyone was getting a lot of leeway with anything that had to do with baby stuff.

Miss Bustier was talking when he came in, so he quietly made his way up to his back row seat, trying not to disturb the class. He probably should have known better.

As soon as he sat down, he saw that Marinette, Rose, Juleka, and Mylène were all looking at him curiously. Then Rose’s eyes lit up and she squealed, “Babies!”

Nathaniel cringed. So much for not making a big deal of this.

Kim leapt from his seat. Unlike most of the class, he hadn’t been allowed to visit Alix in the hospital. He’d wanted to, but she needed rest, and Kim’s energy was not restful. “What? I wanna see!” he exclaimed.

He ran up the steps to the row where Nathaniel was sitting, then bounced excitedly from foot to foot when he saw what Nathaniel held. “Babies! They’re so tiny! Can I hold them?”

Nathaniel stared in horror at Kim’s energetic bouncing. “No!” He couldn’t blame Kim for being curious and excited, but Nathaniel didn’t want to let him near his tiny babies for the same reason he wouldn’t want to let an excited Great Dane near his sons. But now the whole class was staring. Resigning himself, Nathaniel stood so they could all see him. “Alix is still in the hospital, but the boys were ready to come home last night. The school’s daycare isn’t quite ready yet, so I have to keep them with me for now. Is that okay, Miss Bustier?”

“That’s perfectly fine, Nathaniel.” Miss Bustier was beaming. Glowing, even. “If they start crying, you might need to step out, but feel free to ask for help. You and anyone who you want to help you will be excused for however long you need.”

“Thanks, Miss Bustier,” Nathaniel said.

“I’ll help!” Rose cried, raising her hand high into the air.

“Me, too!” Kim said.

Nathaniel’s response to that was immediate. “No.” At Kim’s hurt expression, he amended, “Thank you, Kim, but no.”

Alya waved from her seat near the front. “Nino and I have little siblings, so we’ve got experience. We could help you out if you want.”

Nathaniel let out a breath of relief. “Thank you. I’ll probably need it.”

“Did they say how long it’ll be until the daycare’s ready?” Marinette asked.

“They’re already in there setting up,” he answered. “It’s not supposed to be more than a day or two. We kind of surprised them with needing it now.”

Nathaniel heard whispering to his right and glanced over to find Rose and Juleka watching him. He knew and liked both girls—they were even his friends—but years of bullying had made him react with automatic suspicion whenever someone was whispering about him. The fact that they seemed so amused didn’t help matters.

He frowned at them. “What?”

Rose clasped her hands together. “You look so cute wearing your babies, Nathaniel!”

Caught by surprise, he blinked and blushed. “What?”

“Yeah,” Juleka agreed. “You’re like eight times hotter than usual.”

“You think I’m hot?” he squeaked before he could catch himself. The heat in his face increased. That was a stupid thing to say. Were they teasing him?

To his surprise, Chloe was the one who answered his question. “Every guy’s hot when he’s wearing a tiny, adorable baby, and you’ve got two of them.” She counted on her fingers as she continued. “A guy wearing a baby doubles his hotness. If the baby’s tiny, that’s another double. Times it by two for two tiny babies, leaving a hotness multiplier of four. I guess we can give you another mutiplier for it being _your_ baby, and one more because you’re a teen guy, so you get an ‘unexpected maturity’ point. The boys are twins, which is another point. Plus, they have your hair color, so you all match, another point. Which leaves you with a hotness multiplier of eight. That’s just math. Don’t let it go to your head.”

By the time she finished, Nathaniel was burning up. The last girl on earth he would have expected to go on about his hotness was Chloe. Then again, she had made it sound pretty impersonal.

He glanced around for some kind of explanation, but the other guys looked as stunned and confused as him. Except Kim, who was grinning in a way that managed to look both stupid and calculating.

The girls, on the other hand, were all nodding in agreement with Chloe. Another first.

“Um . . . thanks?” muttered Nathaniel. “I’m gonna sit down now.”

The twins slept all the way through first period. During the break, a bunch of people came over to coo at them and ask how Alix was doing.

“Do the doctors know when she’ll be able to come home?” Mylène asked.

Nathaniel shook his head. “They keep saying a few more days, but that keeps getting put off. Her incision apparently healed okay in her uterus, but it’s not healing as well in the muscle layer and above. And she has some days where she’s really weak.”

“What’s wrong with her?” Kim asked.

“Some kind of infection, but they’re not sure what kind exactly, so they’re having to try different meds. Apparently it’s in her blood now.”

Marinette and Adrien shared a concerned look. “That sounds bad,” said Marinette.

Nathaniel definitely wasn’t happy about it either.

“She’ll kick it,” Kim said with total confidence. “She’s tough, remember?”

Nathaniel did remember, and it made him smile. “You’re right.”

Halfway through second period, Daniel started fussing, which woke Aleron up, and they both started crying. As discreetly as he could, Nathaniel moved down the side aisle and stopped by Nino to ask for his help. He would have liked to think he could take care of his sons on his own, but he was exhausted already, and getting help from a friend wasn’t like getting it from his mom.

They slipped out of the classroom and downstairs to the daycare room. Nino was a godsend, getting Daniel changed and cleaned like a pro while Nathaniel worked on Aleron. While Nino watched the boys, Nathaniel prepped a couple bottles. There weren’t two rockers, but Nurse Janine brought out a folding chair, and the two of them sat down to feed the boys.

“Thank you so much, Nino,” Nathaniel said. He’d taken the folding chair so he wouldn’t risk falling asleep in the rocker. “I don’t know how I’m gonna do this on my own until Alix comes home.”

Nino looked pensive. “Even with the two of you, you’re gonna have your hands full.”

Nathaniel sighed and watched his son drink his meal. “Yeah, but it’s not like we have any other real options.”

Things went on like that for the rest of the day. Each time he needed to leave class to take care of the boys, he tried to ask someone new to help so no one of them would miss too much. At the end of the day, while he was in the daycare room getting the boys in their stroller, Marinette came over and handed him some papers.

“Copies of my notes for today’s classes,” she explained. “So you can catch up on the parts you had to miss.”

He smiled, warmed by her thoughtfulness. This kind of thing was why he used to have a crush on her. “Thanks, Marinette. You’re the best.”

She walked with him out to the courtyard, and he was surprised to see a bunch of people seemingly waiting for them. Ivan, Mylène, Rose, Juleka, and Max were gathered in a semicircle, watching him. Other people in their class stood farther back.

“Hi, guys,” Nathaniel said uncertainly.

Rose bounced up and handed him a paper.

It was a sort of spreadsheet with times and names. Their names. “What is this?”

“It’s the schedule, silly,” Rose answered.

Nathaniel knew his brain was still pretty slow from sleep deprivation, but he couldn’t make any connection to what she was saying. “What schedule?”

“The childcare assistance schedule,” Max answered.

“What?” Nathaniel asked.

Mylène explained. “We can’t just sit by and watch you drain yourself dry taking care of your babies. So those of us who aren’t expecting a baby made up a schedule to come over and help you take care of them. That way, instead of you being sleep-deprived every night of the week, all of us can be sleep-deprived only one night of the week.”

Nathaniel blinked, trying to process what she was saying. “You’re giving me your sleep?”

“We’re giving you our time,” Juleka said. “Sleep or not. Your choice.”

“Alya and Nino offered to explain some baby care stuff to us,” said Ivan, “but you might still need to teach us some things. If that’s okay.”

Nathaniel blinked, and moisture slid down his cheeks. “Thank you, guys.”

“Of course!” Rose chirped. “What are friends for?”

Tears of gratitude and relief fell down Nathaniel’s face, and he couldn’t stop them. All he could do was grab the closest person, who happened to be Rose, and wrap her in a tight hug. The rest of the group immediately piled on.

Nathaniel couldn’t wait to tell Alix what good friends they had.


	74. Chapter 74

In the months that he had been living with her, one thing that Marinette had learned about Adrien was that he usually greeted a new day with much more chipperness than she did. There were times that could be annoying, but mostly, it was refreshing and endearing. On this particular late Saturday morning, he was chipper even by his standards. There was a definite eager bounce in his step, and he couldn’t seem to stop smiling.

“You’re really looking forward to your date, aren’t you?” she asked with a twinge of pain in her heart. It was a familiar twinge, and she ignored it.

“Yep!” He was sitting on her chaise longue, tying his shoes. “I’ve got a special surprise planned for her, and I think she’s gonna really like it.”

_He’s that excited just at the possibility of seeing her happy_ , Marinette thought. “You really love her, don’t you?”

He sat up, his smile growing even bigger. “I do. I think I’m making progress, too. She lets me hold her hand pretty much whenever I want to, and sometimes she even initiates it.”

“No kissing, though?” Marinette internally winced. _Why did I ask that? I really don’t want to know. I must be some kind of masochist._

“Not yet, but that’s okay. I’m not in a hurry.” Then he outwardly winced. “After what happened with Fairy Grandmother, I’m extremely okay with taking things as slow as either of us wants to.”

Marinette definitely agreed with that sentiment. “Well, I hope you both have a good time.”

“You sure you’ll be okay here?” he asked.

She nodded. “I’ve . . . got some projects I might work on.” It was theoretically possible, so she didn’t think it counted as a lie. Even though she did fully plan to sneak out and meet Cat Noir after Adrien left. But she was more hesitant about mentioning her dates to him now that she knew he had some assumption about what guy she was seeing. She wanted to avoid him realizing it wasn’t whatever guy she thought it was and getting suspicious in a way that could lead to him finding out she was seeing Cat Noir, which could all too easily lead to him discovering she was Ladybug. This was one good reason to keep her relationship with Cat Noir secret, now that she’d thought of it. In the unlikely event that someone found out that Marinette was seeing Cat Noir, it wouldn’t immediately lead to the understanding that she was Ladybug, so long as no one knew that Ladybug was seeing Cat Noir. Maybe that was what her gut had been warning her about. (Although her teammates knew that Cat Noir was courting Ladybug, which could be a problem in that event, but at least it could be contained to Miraculous holders.)

Adrien stood up. “Well, I hope it goes well. See you in a few hours.”

Marinette waited five minutes after he left, then transformed and headed for the place Cat Noir had told her to meet him.

It was a flat rooftop in an area of the city they didn’t normally end up in when fighting supervillains. He was already sitting there, waiting patiently, when she arrived.

“It’s good to see you, Milady,” he said, getting up. He wrapped her in a quick hug, then stepped back. “You’re looking radiant today.”

She smiled despite herself. “No need to lay it on so thick, kitty. ‘Nice’ would have done.”

He took her hand and kissed her fingers. “But ‘nice’ wouldn’t have been true. Even ‘radiant’ hardly does you justice. Maybe ‘resplendant’ or ‘magnificent’.”

“All right, all right.” She pulled her hand away and lightly smacked him. “What’s this community service/PR event you wanted us to do? Please not another TV appearance?”

He laughed. “You are cute when you’re out of your element, Bugaboo. But no. How do you feel about kids?”

Her eyebrows went up. “As a general concept? I’m . . . in favor?”

“Good. Then you’ll love this. Come on.” Extending his stick, he charged off across the rooftops.

Ladybug followed him until he came to a stop on top of an apartment building. It wasn’t a very well-kept building, and this looked to be one of the poorer neighborhoods. “What—”

“There.” He pointed to the yard below, where dozens of little kids and adults were gathered.

There was a sheet cake on a table, balloons, a few presents, and kids running around and playing an extremely makeshift game of soccer. Even from the top of the building, Marinette could smell the hotdogs on the barbeque. She’d had problems with nausea when it came to hotdogs in past weeks, but it wasn’t bothering her at the moment.

“A birthday party?” she asked.

Cat Noir nodded. “Someone left a comment on the Ladyblog, and I happened to see it. They’re celebrating three of those kids’ birthdays today, since their birthdays are close together and it’s more affordable for the families to pool together for the party. Apparently all three kids agreed that what they really wanted more than anything was to meet us. Can you believe it?”

Ladybug smiled as she watched the kids play. “It is hard to believe, but if we can make those kids’ day, then let’s give it our best.”

When they landed on the lawn among the crowd, a huge cheer went up from the kids and then from the adults. Ladybug waved. “Hi, kids!”

Cat Noir stepped forward and squatted to greet the kids who ran up to them. “I hear we’re celebrating some birthdays today!”

A boy and two girls shouted, “Mine!”

“Well, happy birthday!” Cat Noir said.

One of the birthday girls ran and jumped into his arms. “You came!”

Without missing a beat, he stood and swung her around before setting her back down. “Of course we came. I always love a birthday party. I wish I could go to one every day.”

“Is it really you?” asked a boy.

Cat Noir made an exaggerated offended face. “Of course it’s us. Who else can make an entrance like that?”

The kids cheered again, and Ladybug found a flood of kids crowding around her. She laughed and tried to respond to their comments and questions, but the kids were all talking over each other in their excitement.

One of the adults—probably one of the dads, from the looks of him—stepped forward. “Give Ladybug some space, kids. She’s pregnant, so you don’t want to overwhelm her.”

Most of the kids stepped back so they weren’t crowding her so much. A few of the less energetic ones stayed to talk to her, but the kids that looked high on sugar all pounced on Cat Noir.

Ladybug smiled gratefully at the dad. “I appreciate the save.”

He brought a chair over for her. “My wife _and_ teenage daughter are pregnant right now, so I’ve gotten a refresher on how hard it can be.” He must have seen Ladybug’s face pale, because he hurried to say, “I’m not saying I blame you. None of us blame you, Ladybug. You know that, right?”

She’d heard it, but it was still hard to believe. “Thank you. That . . . means a lot.”

Ladybug sat with the adults, watching Cat Noir play with the kids, wrestling with them and chasing them around on all fours. A lot of the less active kids came up to Ladybug and wanted a hug or an answer to a question, or just for her to listen to some story they wanted to tell.

“Thank you so much for coming,” one of the moms said after the kids had backed off a little. “It means so much to them.”

“It was Cat Noir’s idea,” Ladybug said. “And it’s probably a one-time thing. We try to keep our public appearances that aren’t supervillain-related limited.”

“We understand,” said the mom. She turned to watch Cat Noir playing with the kids. “Your partner’s really good with them. He must have a lot of younger siblings.”

“I don’t really know.” Ladybug knew his family wasn’t big, so _lots_ of younger siblings was ruled out, but ‘not big’ could mean a lot of things. “We don’t know who each other are under the mask.”

That surprised the woman. “But you’re so close. That seems like a shame.”

“Maybe it is,” Ladybug acknowledged. “But it’s necessary for our safety—and for Paris’s safety.”

“We all really appreciate what the two of you do, Ladybug,” said the woman. “I wish there was some way we could show that more often.”

“We appreciate the support, but it’s what we’re here for. As long as Hawk Moth keeps terrorizing the city, Ladybug and Cat Noir will be here to stop him.” _Even if they aren’t us._

They stayed for the whole party. Ladybug talked with the parents and told stories to the quieter kids, while Cat Noir never stopped playing with the wilder ones. More than once, she got distracted watching them. The sheer joy on his face was infectious, and the kids clearly loved every minute of the attention he gave them.

_He’ll be a great dad_ , Ladybug thought.

The epiphany came in slow and warm, like the tide on a tropical beach.

_I want my son to have a dad like that. I want to watch my son playing like that with him._

After the presents had been opened and the cake had been eaten, Ladybug and Cat Noir waved goodbye and took off, not stopping until they reached a rooftop half a mile away.

“Did you enjoy our date, Milady?” he asked.

“That was a date?”

He winked.

She laughed. “I loved it.

He moved closer and took both her hands in his. “I saw you watching me.”

“Well, you were making quite the spectacle of yourself.”

“I heard somewhere that guys look hotter when paired with cute kids.”

Ladybug felt her cheeks warm. “Is that what this was about?”

“No. But it’d be a nice bonus if it worked. So, Milady, did my attractiveness to you go up at all?”

Between his cocky smirk and the heat in his eyes, she had to look away. “I never said I don’t find you attractive, Cat Noir.”

He leaned to the side to catch her eyes. “So you do?”

“Of course I do. Anyone would.”

He grinned. “So what you’re saying is you can’t resist me?”

“I’ve been resisting you just fine.”

His smile fell, and he backed away. “Yeah. Guess you have.” He took a step back, releasing her hands. “I’d better get back.”

“Cat Noir,” she said, stopping him before he leapt away. He turned to face her. She summoned up her nerve and said, “Meet me tonight, where we had our first date.”

His head tilted in confusion. “Twice in one day? To what do I owe the honor?”

“Meet me there when it gets dark. And ask me again.”

It took him a second to figure out what she was saying. When he did, his face lit up like a supernova. “You really mean it?”

“I’ve made up my mind.”

He made a move toward her, then stopped himself and bowed. “Until tonight, Miladybug.”

She watched him bounce over the rooftops like a jackrabbit on speed, then turned and hurried home.

When Adrien got home an hour later, Marinette really was working on one of her design projects. She was deep into her sewing machine, trying to distract herself from stewing about one of the biggest decisions of her life, when Adrien popped his head up through her door.

“How are you doing?” he asked, sounding a little breathless. “Do you need me?”

Still concentrating on her sewing, she said, “I’m fine for now. How did your date go?”

“Amazing!” The joy in his voice made her look up and roll her chair back to get a look at him. His smile took up his whole face. “I think the girl I love loves me back! I think she’s going to accept me for real!”

Marinette had tried to harden her heart against this kind of thing, but fractures still appeared. She forced a smile. “That’s great.”

“If you don’t need me, I’ve got some things to do. But call if anything comes up, okay?”

“Sure.”

He left as quickly as he’d arrived, and Marinette went back to sewing.

Adrien wasn’t hers, but Cat Noir could be. He loved her. He was a good, kind, brave, loyal person. He would be a good father to her son.

There was no point in making him wait anymore.

She was making the right decision.


	75. Chapter 75

Before leaving Marinette’s house, Adrien made a quick bathroom stop. With Marinette in her room and her parents in the bakery, he was unlikely to be overheard, so when Plagg came out of his pocket, Adrien didn’t tell him to hide.

“I can’t believe she’s finally going to accept me, Plagg!” Adrien couldn’t help fixing his hair in the mirror, the instinct to try to look his best overriding the knowledge that his transformation would make his hair look different no matter what he did to it.

“You don’t know that,” Plagg said, ever the realist. “She only said she’d made up her mind. She might be planning to reject you and call off the courting.”

Adrien scowled. The main problem with Plagg’s point was that it was absolutely correct. Ladybug hadn’t said—or even implied, really—that she was going to accept him. She hadn’t even been smiling when she’d told him to meet her. “I know she’s going to accept me. I can feel it.”

“What if she doesn’t?”

The thought made everything inside Adrien grind to a halt. What if she rejected him? What would he have then? The thought of being rejected once and for all by Ladybug made him want to curl up into a ball and hide from everything. But the thing that really poured salt in the wound was the knowledge that if that happened, he’d have given up pursuing a real family with Marinette for nothing.

He hadn’t been lying to Marinette when he’d told her that he knew they could be happy together. After months of living with her and getting to know her better, he was more sure of that than ever. She was sweet, kind, funny, smart, supportive, clever, and creative. Being with her was relaxing and fun. All the things that made her an amazing friend (and would make her an amazing mother) would also make her a wife that any guy would be lucky to have. While she still got flustered around him or froze up sometimes, she was much more comfortable with him than she used to be. So he probably could have won her over to the idea eventually if he’d worked at it. Even if they never loved each other romantically, he knew they could be happy together for the rest of their lives, and not just because of their son.

It was the smarter choice, too. They knew each other, they had the same friends, they were already comfortable with each others’ parents, they worked (or wanted to work) in the same industry, and it made the most sense for their son to have a cohesive, unified family. Marinette was a known quantity. She wasn’t a risk. He knew exactly what he’d be getting with her, and (secret superhero life aside) so would she.

And if he was really, brutally honest with himself, the idea of loving her romantically wasn’t completely out of the question. Maybe it was just a subconscious, instinctive reaction to having once been physically intimate with her, but there was something special about Marinette. He didn’t feel quite the same way about her as he did about his other female friends. Some part of that was definitely physical desire (which he worked hard to repress whenever it appeared), but not all of it. Maybe the rest of it was the kind of fondness which could grow into romantic love if he let it. If Ladybug rejected him and if his heart was able to let go of her, he had a feeling he might end upfalling for Marinette.

Which was why the knowledge that she was already moving on with Luka was such a bitter irony. If Adrien had asked her sooner to consider marrying him and making a traditional family with their son, if he’d moved on from Ladybug and tried to change targets, maybe he could have had that future. But he’d already burnt that bridge in order to pursue Ladybug, and Marinette had every right to move forward with a guy she was actually in love with.

“Ladybug _has_ to accept me, Plagg,” Adrien said. “I went all-in to court her. If she rejects me now . . . I don’t know what I’ll do.”

Plagg landed on his shoulder. “I mean this with love, kid, but that’s your problem, not hers. Keep that in mind.”

Adrien swallowed. “I know.” Looking in the mirror, he saw a timid and uncertain boy. That wasn’t right. He wasn’t like that—he _couldn’t_ be like that anymore. He had a son to take care of (or would very soon). Marinette needed his help. He couldn’t afford to be fearful and pessimistic. He needed to be bold. Standing straight, he stiffened his resolve. “My heart told me to pursue her, Plagg, and my heart is telling me she won’t reject me now.”

“How can you be sure of that?”

“I just am.”

“For all our sakes, Adrien, I hope you’re right.”

Adrien left Marinette’s house and got to work setting things up for tonight. He called in a meal to his chef at the mansion, then gathered up the things he needed to decorate the rooftop even more romantically than before. More pillows, more candles, more flower petals. He even bought a dozen red roses. After he’d moved most of it to the rooftop but before setting everything up, it occurred to him that after she accepted his proposal, Ladybug might want to share their identities. If that happened, he wanted to look his best.

When he went to the mansion to pick up the picnic basket for dinner and change into the coolest and most flattering suit he had, he ran into Nathalie. On the way in, thankfully; he wasn’t quite ready yet for her to ask him what he was getting so dressed-up for.

“How are you doing, Adrien?” she asked.

“I’m doing great. How are you, Nathalie?”

“Well enough. Your father asked me to inform you that he’s considered your request, and he’s willing to approve it.”

It took a moment for Adrien to remember which request she could mean. “Oh, the house? He’s really willing to buy me and my friends a house?” That was more than a little surprising. Adrien had already been figuring out a backup plan, expecting that his father would refuse.

“Yes,” she said, checking her tablet, “and I’ve found a house which I believe might suit your needs.” She turned the tablet to him. On the screen was a private real estate listing for a five-bedroom, four storey row house that was less than a mile from their school.

Adrien tapped through the photos, easily imagining how they might design the interior together to suit them all. “It’s perfect!” Then he scrolled up to see the nearly four-million-euro price tag and got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“Excellent,” said Nathalie. “Mr. Agreste has authorized me to send an offer on it, if you’re certain this is what you want.”

“Nathalie,” Adrien said, treading lightly, “did Father mention wanting anything in exchange for buying me this? Or would he be buying it for himself and expecting us to pay rent?”

“The deed would be in your name,” she said, but that didn’t make him feel a lot better. “Naturally, he expects only what he already expected: that you would continue to work for the Gabriel brand as a model and, later, as successor CEO of the company.”

So, that was it. This was the leverage his father would use to make sure Adrien followed the career path Gabriel wanted him to. As of this moment, Adrien was under no real obligation to continue working for his father once he got done with school or even to enter the industry that his father chose. If Adrien wanted to, he could leave the fashion world and the Gabriel brand behind entirely once he was legally an adult. But accepting this house from his father would change all of that. The price of providing a home and independence for his family and friends was Adrien’s entire future career.

He smiled. Despite chafing under Gabriel’s control, he’d never had any strong desire to do any other kind of work, anyway. While it was annoying at times, he really did enjoy modeling. And having influence and control over a major fashion brand would mean that he’d always have the ability to ensure Marinette had all the career opportunities she needed, and that would help to ensure that his son had a happy, successful home even if he and Marinette didn’t live together in the future.

Adrien looked Nathalie in the eye. “Tell Father I accept his terms.”

She looked pleased. “Should I send the offer on the house?”

“Yes. Send it.”

“Very well. There is . . . one other thing. Not a requirement, but a suggestion. Your father did give his approval on it, but this one is from me.”

That piqued his curiosity. “What is it?”

She told him. And although he had mixed feelings about it, he didn’t hesitate to agree.

After leaving the mansion, Adrien transformed and spent a while getting everything set up on the rooftop. As the sun neared the horizon, painting the sky in gorgeous shades of pink and orange, Cat Noir put the final touches on the scene so the mood would be perfectly set when his lady arrived. When he reached the point in his fiddling that he was no longer actually improving anything, he forced his hands to his sides and gazed out at the sunset across the river. If only Ladybug had told him to meet her here at dusk instead of ‘when it gets dark’, he could have shared this with her.

As he looked around, his eyes found Marinette’s terrace only a short distance away. He jumped in surprise when he saw her standing there, leaning on the railing and watching him. Had she been watching his preparations for a while? Had she seen his nervous puttering? It should have been embarrassing, but he was too excited and happy to be embarrassed. And if he couldn’t share this sunset with his lady, he could at least share it with the second most special girl in his life.

Two seconds later, he landed on her terrace railing on all fours. “Enjoying the view?”

His sudden, unorthodox appearance didn’t fluster her in the slightest, even though quietly walking up behind her as Adrien had sent her into wild babbling more than once. “It’s a beautiful sunset.”

He shifted to sit with one foot on the rail and the other dangling. “It is. But if I’m not mistaken, you weren’t looking at the sunset. Not that I blame you. It would be hard for any girl to tear her eyes off me for something as mundane as a sunset.”

She giggled, and the sound warmed his insides. “You looked busy is all. Preparing for another date with Ladybug?”

How did she know he was going on dates with Ladybug? But wait, no . . . she was probably referring to the first one, where Ladybug had stood him up and he’d shown it to Marinette instead. “Yeah. But she’s actually going to show up this time.”

“You’re sure?”

“Absolutely. It was her idea.”

“So, are you two . . . ?”

Cat Noir knew he was supposed to keep it a secret. But this was Marinette, and she was different (not that she knew that). If things went according to his plan, she and Ladybug would end up sharing his house together, so she’d know soon enough anyway. “Before I tell you, promise not to tell your friend Alya?” Although since Alya was Rena Rouge and Carapace (a.k.a. Nino) knew about him courting Ladybug, it was a pretty sure bet that Alya already knew. But Cat Noir wasn’t supposed to know all that, and Marinette wouldn’t know all that either, so it made since for him to ask.

Marinette nodded.

Cat Noir grinned. “Ladybug has been letting me court her. And tonight, she’s giving me her answer.”

“You look awfully sure about what her answer’s going to be.”

_Not you, too._ Why did he have to be surrounded by practical people with good points? “I’m sure. I feel it.”

“A lot of people are gonna be happy if you guys do end up together.”

“I’ll be at the top of that list,” he said. “And I hope you’ll be on it somewhere, too.”

She smiled, softness and warmth in her eyes. “I will be.”

When she said that, the way she looked at him was too familiar and loving for a friend she’d only talked to a handful of times. It was as if . . . she really knew him and his happiness really meant something to her. Had she figured him out? Had he given himself away somehow? Maybe he could feel her out. “You know, Ladybug said I shouldn’t be friendly with you. She’s afraid I’ll say something to give away my identity.”

Her expression cooled, withdrawing. “I’m sure she had a good reason for saying that. If you want to go, I’ll understand.”

Cat Noir slid off the railing to stand closer to her, leaning his forearms on the railing. “You wouldn’t tell anyone my identity, Marinette, even if you found out. I trust you.”

She raised her eyebrow at him. “Why?”

“You seem like a trustworthy person.” He winked. “And I know Ladybug believes you can keep a secret identity secret, or she wouldn’t have given you the Mouse Miraculous.”

Marinette blushed. Maybe she’d forgotten that Cat Noir had seen her as Multimouse. “Right.”

“You would tell me if I accidentally gave myself away to you, right?”

Rather than agreeing immediately, she considered it. “I guess I could do that. But you probably shouldn’t talk too much about yourself, to be safe.”

So she probably hadn’t figured him out, then. Maybe that warm look had been because even though they hadn’t interacted much, she considered him a closer friend than he knew. She _had_ had a crush on him at one point, so maybe that was where her fondness came from. “All right, if we shouldn’t talk about me, let’s talk about you. How’s the pregnancy going?”

“Pretty well. Typical, I guess. No major problems, so I’m grateful for that.”

“The father of your baby is that model guy, right?” He knew he really shouldn’t have asked, but he couldn’t resist.

She gasped. “How did you—”

“I do get the internet. They’ve done a good job at respecting your privacy, but that initial report and the photos from the restaurant made the rounds before he made his request to leave you alone.”

“Oh, right.” She relaxed but seemed a little embarrassed. Hopefully not of him.

“You guys are friends?”

“Yeah. We go to school together.”

“Can I ask what you think of him?”

“He’s . . . a very good friend.”

Cat Noir was relieved to hear that. He’d been worried after that whole ‘top thirty favorite people’ thing the other day, but it sounded like either she’d been trying to tease him or she really did love Project Runway that much. (Though since he’d rarely heard her talk about the show, it was probably the teasing thing.) “I’m sure he feels the same way about you.”

“Yes, he does,” she said, an unaccountable melancholy in her voice. Surely he was imagining it, because why would it make her sad that he thought of her as a friend when she thought of him the same way?

He tried to find a subject sure to brighten her up. “Do you have a special boy in your life?”

“I have several special boys in my life,” she said, moving a hand to her belly, “including this one.”

It was so hard not to put at least one arm around her, but he refrained. “I was thinking more of a love interest. Any lucky boy out there you want to be with?” He already knew the answer, but the two of them didn’t really talk about their love lives when they were at home. He needed to keep his secret, of course, and maybe she was just private with hers. Or maybe she found it awkward to talk about with the father of her child; maybe she’d say more to someone who was nothing but a casual friend.

“Maybe,” she said in a leading way that definitely meant yes.

“Anyone I know?” he teased.

She eyed him. “Now, Cat Noir, how would I know who you know?”

“Oh. That’s a good point.” If Luka hadn’t told her about being Viperion—which he definitely _shouldn’t_ have—and of course she didn’t know Cat Noir’s real identity, then there wouldn’t be any reason for her to know that Cat Noir knew him. “Maybe you could tell me what he’s like, then?”

“So you can try to figure him out?”

“Is his identity secret?” Why _couldn’t_ she just say his name?

“What if I said his name and you reacted like you knew him? That would narrow down your identity. And that would be bad.”

“Okay. That’s true. But you can describe him, right? You’re my friend, Marinette. I want to know you’ve got a good guy.”

She smiled coyly. “All right. He’s . . . silly and outgoing. He annoys me, but he’s so sincere, I can’t stay mad at him for long. He gets pouty sometimes, but he gets over it quickly.”

That . . . didn’t really sound much like Luka. Maybe he didn’t know Luka as well as he thought he did. But Marinette seemed to be happy talking about him, and Cat Noir was so glad to know that she had someone to love her like she deserved to be loved.

“Will he be there for you and your baby?” Cat Noir asked.

“He’s said he will, and I believe him.”

“Does he make you happy?”

“Yes.”

“Do you love him?”

Cat Noir had asked the question casually—because obviously the answer must be yes—but Marinette’s hesitation in answering made him watch her more closely.

Gazing up at him, her blue eyes full of sincerity, she said, “Yes. I love him dearly.”

Even though he was happy that she was happy, hearing her declare her love for Luka made something inside him twist uncomfortably. That was probably his fear and the knowledge that he really didn’t have any fall-back option to be with her if Ladybug rejected him.

But she wouldn’t, so he forced the feeling away and smiled. “Good.”

Marinette stood back from the railing. “The sun’s set now. You might want to get back before you accidentally stand Ladybug up.”

The thought of her arriving and him not being there drove every other thought from Cat Noir’s mind. “Shoot! You’re right! Thanks, Marinette. I hope things go well with your guy.”

He shot out his stick and bounded over to the other rooftop to await his lady’s arrival. After making one last check that everything was in place, he glanced to Marinette’s terrace. She was gone.


	76. Chapter 76

Cat Noir stood on the flat rooftop, a bouquet of roses in his hand, waiting for the love of his life. When she arrived, dropping out of the sky like an angel, joy and hope filled him, his heart pounding wildly with it.

She looked around at the scene he’d prepared: dozens of lit candles lining the railing, petals strewn like a carpet under her feet, a picnic blanket with food and drink artfully laid out, and two huge piles of red pillows for them to sit on. “You don’t know the meaning of ‘too much’, do you, Kitty?”

He walked to her, holding out the bouquet. “Not when it comes to you, Milady. I’d give you the world if I could.”

Taking the roses, she sniffed them. “Thank you. These are beautiful.” She found a spot to set them carefully to the side.

When she turned back to him, he dropped to one knee and took her hand. It probably would have been better to wait until she’d settled more into the romantic mood, but his whole body was buzzing, his mind only able to process the single question he wanted to ask. It would be impossible to focus on anything else or even hear anything she said until it was asked. And it was what she was here for, after all.

“Ladybug,” Cat Noir said, gazing up into her wide, blue eyes, “will you marry me?”

He expected her to say yes immediately. To say, ‘Of course, silly Kitty. Why do you think I’m here?’

But she didn’t.

She smiled softly and cupped his cheek with the hand he wasn’t holding. “Before I answer that, can we talk?”

Cat Noir tried to swallow, but his throat couldn’t remember how to work. This was not going how he’d expected, and all the fear of rejection that he’d spent hours pushing away crept back into his mind. But he smiled and stood and said, “Of course.”

They sat on the pillows, and he poured them glasses of sparkling cider. His hand shook as he handed hers to her, but both of them pretended not to notice.

“I want to tell you how much you mean to me, Cat Noir.”

_No. Please, no. Why does this sound like a lead up to a rejection?_

He didn’t respond, and Ladybug continued. “You’re the best partner I could have ever asked for. You’re brave and loyal, smart, dedicated, and fun to be around. I love how well we understand each other and work together. I would never have become the Ladybug I am without you. The fact that you love me and want to be with me is truly humbling, especially after how difficult I’ve made it for you. You’re one of the most important people in my life. Maybe even my best friend.”

He tried to smirk, but his face muscles couldn’t quite get there, since this still sounded very much like it was leading to a kind rejection. “Maybe?”

“I have a female friend who’d fight you for the title.”

“As long as she’s a girl, I guess I can share.”

Ladybug smiled gently. Could she see the strain in his features? “Remember what I told you after the Fairy Grandmother attack, the night you apologized for always flirting with me?”

He nodded. “You told me you love me. As a friend.”

“I still love you, Cat Noir. I love you so much, the thought of not having you in my life would be unbearable. Even if we don’t get to be superheroes anymore, I’ll still need you. You bring so much joy and light to my life, and I know that you’ll always, _always_ be there when I need you. And even most of the time when I don’t.” She winked, indicating that last part was a joke.

That kind of declaration of feelings should have sent him to the moon. But it was tarnished by one little detail. “You love me that much . . . as a friend.”

With one simple nod, she tore his heart to shreds. Her friendship meant so much to him, he should have been happy, but she’d let him hope for more. She’d given him the chance to win her heart, and he’d failed. The future with her that he’d begun to see so clearly dissolved like grains of sugar.

He’d been so sure. So sure. But he’d been wrong. He’d lost his chance with Ladybug. He’d given away even the chance of Marinette. How could his heart have led him so far astray? He definitely should have listened to his head.

Turning his face from her to try to hide the tears pooling in his eyes, he shifted to get up. “I understand, Ladybug. I’m sorry I wasted your time with the whole courting thing.” He walked toward the edge of the roof. It wasn’t really nice to abandon her like this, but he had to get away, get some time to deal with this and recover so he could be the partner and friend she needed. He plucked his stick from the back of his belt, but before he could extend it, the sharp, firm snap of her voice stopped him cold.

“It’s a yes!”

Her words made no sense. Turning toward her, he asked, “What?”

She hadn’t moved from her spot on the pillows, but she held his gaze with the boldness and certainty that he loved. “The answer to your question. It’s a yes.”

Cat Noir blinked, wiping away his tears so he might see her more clearly. What question? What was she talking abou—

_Wait. That question?_

_It’s a yes?_

Dropping his stick, he stumbled toward her and fell to his knees. “Ladybug, I don’t understand. What are you saying?”

The certainty in her expression wavered, giving way to an uncharacteristic shyness. She broke eye contact. “I’m saying I want to marry you, Cat Noir. If . . . if you’re willing to take me as I am.”

Confusion roiled inside him, swirling around with joy and sadness until he had no idea what he was feeling. “As you are?”

“As a girl whose heart still can’t seem to let go of another boy. As a girl who loves you, but not the way you deserve to be loved.”

Gradually, her words settled into some kind of order in his brain. “You’re willing to marry me . . . even though you don’t love me?”

“I do love you,” she argued, once again meeting his gaze. “Just not romantically. My heart still wants another boy, but it’s impossible. He doesn’t want me. He has someone else. I know that, and I’ve tried so hard to get over him, but I can’t seem to do it. But I’ve decided that doesn’t matter to me. I see you, Cat Noir—how much you love me, what a good husband and father you’d be. You’re one of my best friends, and I don’t want to live without you in my life. And you love me, Cat Noir. You love me so much, and I . . . ” Her eyes suddenly brimmed with tears. “I want so much to be loved. To put my heart in the hands of someone who I know would keep it safe. I’m so tired of feeling hurt and heartbroken. Of not being seen by the one I love. You are the right choice, Cat Noir; I’m sure of it. My heart might still want another boy, but I’ve decided to let my mind make this decision. I choose you. I’ll promise myself to you, to be faithful to you and love you in the best way I possibly can. To be your partner for the rest of our lives. If . . . ” The tears escaped and fell down her mask. “If you’re willing to take me this way. But . . . I’ll understand if you can’t.”

Cat Noir surged forward and wrapped her tightly in his arms, her face pressed into his neck as he knelt before her. “I love you, Ladybug. I love you so much. Of course I’ll take you, any way I can get you. If you’ll marry me, I’ll be the happiest guy in the world, and I promise I’ll work hard every day to earn as many kinds of love as you can give me.”

She pulled back, not out of his arms but enough to look at him. Both of their faces were wet with tears but bright with smiling hope. “Are you really sure, Cat Noir?”

“Absolutely, Milady. Absolutely.”

She hugged his waist, pressing her cheek against his chest. “Thank you, Kitty. I love you. I do. And I’ll work hard to turn the love I feel into romantic love.”

It hurt a little to know she’d have to work hard at it, but he knew she meant it in the best way. He’d earned her respect, her friendship, her commitment, and her love as a friend. The fact that she was willing to give him the rest of her life because of how much she cared for and needed him was more than he ever had a right to ask for. He couldn’t blame her for making the choice that her mind told her was the smart one. The boy she loved didn’t want her, so she chose the second-best option she’d been presented with. Hadn’t he been wishing he’d left a second-best option open himself, if his love had rejected him? It would be hypocritical to hold that against her.

He hugged her tighter. “I appreciate that, Milady. But don’t feel bad if you never do. I’ll bring enough romance for both of us. As long as I can make you happy, that’ll be enough for me.”

She sniffled and buried her face tighter against him. They stayed there like that for a couple minutes, holding each other in silence, until Ladybug finally pulled away and wiped the (he hoped) happy tears from her eyes. “Just so you know, you’re not starting from scratch, romantic-love-wise. I do feel a little bit of that for you.”

He grinned at the fantastic news. “You do?”

She held up her thumb and forefinger about a centimeter apart. “Just a little,” she teased.

“Then I’ll have to see what I can do to build on that.”

They settled back on their pillows to eat the food he’d prepared. As they ate, they talked lightly and joked. Cat Noir hardly even knew what he was saying half the time, happiness and relief filling him with a lightheaded giddiness.

After eating, he moved to sit with her on her pillows as they kept talking. First, he was only beside her, then holding her hand, then his arm wrapped around her with her leaning on his chest. It felt so good to be near her that he kept wanting her closer and closer. She’d agreed to be _his_. That knowledge made him want to wrap her up in his arms and never let her go.

Eventually, she did end up in his arms. In a fit of adoration, he’d scooped her up princess-style in his arms and pulled her into his lap. She didn’t give any indication of wanting to move away, so he sat there, cross-legged on the pillows, with her still in his arms, one around her back and one under her knees. He cuddled her to him, rubbing his face against her shoulder, letting his purr rumble out of his chest and into her big belly, where the little boy who’d one day be his son could probably feel it.

One of her arms moved to rest on his shoulder, her fingers rubbing his hair in a way that made his purr even louder. “Aren’t your arms getting tired of holding me like this?” she asked.

He shook his head—only a little, so she didn’t stop rubbing at his scalp. “Superstrength.”

She giggled. “That probably counts as a selfish use of powers, but I’ll let it pass.”

“Are you happy, Milady?”

“In general?”

“Right now.”

“Yes, Kitty. I’m very happy. I feel like . . . all the confusion and hurt and turmoil inside me has faded away, while I’m here with you. Thank you for never giving up on me.”

“I’m glad my persistence paid off.” He hesitated to speak the thought that came to his mind next, not wanting to spoil this perfect moment, but his curiosity got the better of him. “Since you’ve agreed to marry me now, don’t you think we should share our identities? Unless you really do want to wait for the wedding night?”

Her body bounced softly with her chuckle, but she didn’t stiffen up like he’d feared. “We definitely will, but I don’t think it’s the right time yet. We should focus on taking care of Hawk Moth. We’ll need to do it soon, or we’ll need to find replacements. Either way, we’ve only got a little while longer to be Ladybug and Cat Noir. I don’t want to risk anything about our working dynamic changing on the off chance that we know each other in real life.”

“Do you think we might, Milady?”

“Anything’s possible. What if we actually hate each other in our real lives? We’d have a lot to work through, and doing it while fighting Hawk Moth would be a bad idea.”

Cat Noir frowned. He couldn’t think of many girls he hated or even strongly disliked—but that number wasn’t exactly zero. While he really, really didn’t think Ladybug was any of them, he could see her point. Or maybe that was just an excuse she was using to put off any more potentially uncomfortable changes in her life as long as possible. Given that she was close to having a baby (and so was dealing with more than enough change at the moment), he decided not to push. “All right, Ladybug. If you say so. Knowing that I’ll know who you are soon is good enough for me. And to be honest, it means a lot that you trust me enough to accept me as a father to your baby even without knowing who I am under the mask.”

“I may not know who you are under the mask, Kitty, but I fully believe you’ll be a good dad.”

“Oh? What makes you so sure?” Was it his dependability? His strength? His devotion?

“You’ve already got the jokes down pat. Seriously, I’ve heard you make the actual same joke as my dad at least once.”

Cat Noir laughed—he could hardly deny that he made dad jokes—and then they were laughing together, the sound reverberating between the two of them.

Ladybug let Cat Noir cuddle her well into the night—and no, his arms never got tired. Eventually, she said goodbye, kissed his cheek, and leapt away. Still buzzing with elation, he cleaned up the rooftop and used his key to quietly enter Marinette’s house through the main door.

He detransformed in the stairwell and slumped against the wall. “She said yes, Plagg. Ladybug actually said yes. She said she’ll marry me.”

Plagg gave him a wry smile. “Congratulations, kid. Are you gonna stop being all sappy now?”

“Nope. It’s gonna get worse.”

“I was afraid of that.”

Adrien made his way up to Marinette’s room. It was late enough that the house was quiet, everyone else having gone to bed. He opened her door as gently as he could, careful not to let it fall to the floor, got his things, and went to the bathroom to change and get ready for bed. When he came back to her room for the night, he peeked up to see that Marinette was lying in bed, right where he’d assumed she’d be.

“Adrien?” she asked softly. “Did you just get home?”

“Yes. Sorry for waking you.”

“It’s okay.”

His heart was still going too fast, and the urge to share his amazing news with someone (other than Plagg) hit him with overwhelming force. “Sorry I was gone most of the day. You didn’t even get any massages or cuddle time.”

“It’s okay.”

“It’s too late for a massage, unless you really need one, but I could spare some cuddles if you want.”

She didn’t answer at first, but she shifted, and then her face peeked over the edge of the bed at him. Her eyebrow was raised, her mouth quirked in mild amusement. “If you want to cuddle, Adrien, you can just ask.”

He grinned at how easily she’d seen through him. Marinette sure was clever. “Would you mind? I’m in a really good mood right now, and I’m dying to share it with someone.”

She chuckled and shifted like she was going to get up. “Okay.”

“No, you don’t need to try these stairs half-asleep,” he said, hands curling around the handrails of her ladder. “I’ll come up.”

When he reached her bed, he found her sitting up and watching him with wide, surprised eyes. _I’m in her bed again_ , he realized. It had felt so natural, and he hadn’t meant anything weird by it, but now he saw how strangely his actions could come across. “Um, is this okay? I won’t do anything weird, I promise.”

She relaxed. “I know. It’s just strange seeing you up here.” Marinette moved to one side of her bed, giving him room to crawl up.

He propped up on her big kitty pillow, at an angle that wasn’t quite meant for sleeping but would work fine for a little while. Marinette crawled closer, letting him wrap his arms around her shoulders while she curled against his side, one arm over his stomach and her head on his chest. He helped her get a pillow under her belly and another behind her back, then she pulled the blanket up over them, and they settled in.

Marinette shook slightly like she was laughing and breathed what sounded like, “Boys.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

Having her close like this helped his still-racing heart to calm down, though he could feel that it would take a while. “I have some amazing news,” he told her, staring up at her ceiling. “Do you want to hear it?”

“Sure.” Her voice was sleepy and muffled against his shirt.

“The girl I love really did accept me. She even agreed to marry me. I don’t know when we’ll do that, but it doesn’t matter. Just knowing it’s coming makes me so incredibly happy. It hardly feels real. I can’t believe how lucky I am.”

She didn’t respond for so long, he thought she might have fallen asleep. But eventually, she said, “That’s great, Adrien. I’m happy for you.”

“Thanks, Marinette. I wanted you to know right away, since this means we’ll all be connected in the future. Don’t worry; I’m sure you’ll like her.” He thought about bringing up the house plan again, but that was a discussion for when Marinette wasn’t likely to fall asleep in the middle of it.

They fell into a comfortable silence, and gradually, Adrien’s heart slowed back down to normal and the sharp excitement he felt faded into the background.

By the time he felt like he’d gotten enough cuddles to go back to the chaise longue, she was sleeping soundly, and moving would wake her up. And her bed was a lot more comfortable than the chaise.

While he was trying to work out the best way to get up without waking her, he drifted off.


	77. Chapter 77

Unexpected movement woke Marinette. Groggily, she opened her eyes and lifted her head to see a pajama-clad tushie wiggling toward the end of her bed. She tried to blink the sleep from her eyes. “Adrien?”

He looked back at her, smiling sweetly. “Sorry to wake you. You can go back to sleep if you want. It’s Sunday.” He continued on his way, down the ladder to the floor of her bedroom.

The room was filled with morning sunlight, bright and cheery. She fumbled for her phone, found it, and checked the time. Eight a.m. She’d slept right through the night without waking from discomfort, which hadn’t happened in a while. Maybe the eventful night had worn her out. She’d actually gotten engaged to Cat Noir. It was a strange, numbing sort of thought, but a pleasant one. She’d been getting used to the idea for weeks before actually accepting his proposal, so it didn’t feel as unreal as it might have. She’d let her partner—and now her fiancé—hold her for a long time, feeling safe and comfortable in his arms. Thinking of it now, she felt no regret or panic, only contentment and hope for the future. She’d definitely made the right choice.

_Not that Adrien’s making it easy on me, wanting to come up to my bed for some late-night cuddles and then . . ._

Marinette’s face grew hot.

_And then sleeping in my bed with me all night._

She slapped her cheeks lightly.

_Stop it. It’s not weird. Nothing weird happened. It was just platonic cuddles like normal. It was late, so we both fell asleep. That’s it._

And he certainly hadn’t seemed embarrassed so far this morning, which meant he didn’t think they’d done anything wrong.

_You have a_ _fiancé_ , she reminded herself. _And he has . . . he has . . ._ Memories of his words before she fell asleep came back to her. _He has a_ _fiancé_ _e, too._ Had that only happened last night? What a strange coincidence. Though it had been Saturday night, a good night for dates, and they had been seeing each other for a while, him and his mystery celebrity. For a moment, she wondered if she could get a clue to the girl’s identity by watching the celebrity gossip sites—but no. Adrien’s fiancée wanted to keep their relationship secret, so they probably wouldn’t tell many people until they were ready to be public with it. Which meant he’d confided in Marinette as someone very close to him, and he trusted her to keep it secret. That meant a lot.

She couldn’t tell him about her engagement, though, for the same reasons she couldn’t tell him who she’d been seeing. But soon, her and Cat Noir would have to stop being heroes, they’d share their identities, and they’d meet everyone in each other’s lives. How would Cat Noir react when he found out that his fiancée was having the baby of ‘that model guy’ who’d played him in the movie? Would he be annoyed? Amused? She just hoped he wouldn’t tease Adrien too much.

While Adrien was gone getting his morning shower, Marinette carefully made her way down the ladder and worked on getting changed.

Tikki phased through the wall. “You two looked awfully cozy last night.”

“You know it doesn’t mean anything other than friendship, Tikki,” Marinette said, sitting on the chaise as she pulled on some leggings. “Besides, I’m completely done with my crush on him. Final curtain. The end. Roll credits. I have Cat Noir now, and I’m sure I’ve made the right choice in committing to him.”

“As long as you’ve made the choice that will make you happy, then I’m happy for you,” Tikki said.

Marinette let Tikki see a dash of uncertainty. “Do you think I _have_ made the choice that will make me happy?”

Tikki grinned and nodded vigorously. “I do, Marinette.”

Even though Marinette _was_ sure about her choice, knowing that her kwami agreed with it still gave her a sense of relief. “We still need to get rid of Hawk Moth before we can actually move forward with anything.”

“Then that should give both of you even more reason to find him and stop him.”

#

Over the next twenty-four hours, Marinette didn’t say a word about Adrien’s engagement, not even to him. He’d almost have thought she’d been too asleep to hear him, if not for the way she diverted the conversation on Monday morning when Alya and Nino wanted to know why he was in such a good mood. She slipped him a tiny smile when they weren’t looking, letting him know she had his back.

He sure did love that girl.

As a friend.

Maybe, in another life, there could have been more, though.

Maybe, in another life, she might have been the one chosen to be Ladybug. How different that would have been.

Still, he had Ladybug, the girl who set his heart on fire, and he wouldn’t want it any other way.

It was a little too bad, though, that he couldn’t actually have both. No, not like that! Not in a sleazy way. Just . . .

_Argh. Never mind._ What was he even thinking?

He really needed to talk to Marinette again about the house. When he’d called to check in with Nathalie this morning, she’d told him that everything was already finalized. He just needed to go by to look at some final papers, and the house would be his. How she’d made everything happen so quickly, he didn’t know, but his father and Nathalie had their ways.

So he really had to tell Marinette about it, so she could tell Luka, so both of them could make plans. Assuming they agreed to it. Maybe it was the fear of them saying no that was making him hesitate. He _needed_ Marinette nearby—partly to they could all be together, them and their son, but also for her own sake. The thought of not seeing her every day made him feel restless inside. So maybe if he waited until the house was fully his, until he’d inspected it and made sure everything was up to par, and then done his best to make it presentable . . . then he could plan a surprise to show Marinette and Ladybug and Luka, and they’d be so impressed that they’d _have_ to agree to live there with him.

Right?

#

“Draw four!” Plagg announced, slamming the Uno card down with an infuriatingly victorious grin.

Tikki grumbled and picked another card from the deck. It wasn’t easy to play with cards as big as they were, but they’d worked out a way by propping their hands up on either side of a pillow. It was two a.m., and both kwamis were in the moonlit living room. “You know, you’re a bad winner, Plagg.”

“As long as I’m the winner, does that matter?”

His response did not improve her mood. “You also fail to take things seriously. And you keep trying to hide stinky cheese all over the house when you know it might make Sabine and her daughter nauseous.” Since kwamis were magically prevented from saying their owners’ names aloud, even to each other, they’d had to figure some work-arounds.

“And _you_ keep finding it and tossing it out,” he shot back, as if her actions were worse than his.

She huffed. “Why’d I have to get stuck with you for a housemate? Why couldn’t it have been Wayzz? He’s much more respectful.”

“More boring, you mean,” Plagg said, plopping down to lounge on the pillow they were using as a card table. “Besides, for that to have happened, Nino would have had to be the one having a baby with Marinette, and that would have screwed everything up.”

Tikki shuddered. “Yes, it would have.” She hadn’t heard if anyone had ever nailed down why people got paired with who they did when the gas hit. Mostly, it seemed to be just whatever two people were closest to each other, but the fact that it didn’t force anyone to cheat on their significant other (that she’d heard of) might mean that Nino and Alya would have been forced together even if Marinette had been physically closer to him at the time. But none of them could be sure of that, and the thought of what might have happened if things had been a little different was too heartbreaking to contemplate. They were all good kids; they would have made the best of it. But it still would have hurt all four of them, especially after Adrien found out that Marinette was the girl he was in love with.

Plagg let out a long, dramatic sigh. “Enjoy me while you can, Sugar Cube. We’ll have to go back in the box soon.”

“Not until they defeat Hawk Moth,” Tikki retorted.

“Until _someone_ does,” he corrected. “So we might have to be with some new kids for a while first. It’s still the end, isn’t it?”

Tikki sat down beside him on the pillow, her interest in their card game gone entirely. “The end always comes eventually,” she reminded him gently. Reminded them both, really, not that the truth of it ever made it easier.

He sat up, his ears perking. “But if they did defeat Hawk Moth, they wouldn’t necessarily need to give us up, would they? What if they held onto the Miraculouses? You know, in case some other supervillain popped up?”

It was an incredibly tempting thought. If Ladybug and Cat Noir weren’t needed for action, then they wouldn’t be forced to choose between superhero duty and their child. Nor would it be entirely necessary for the Miraculouses to be passed on to someone who could do the job, if the job didn’t need to be done. “Miraculous holders never get to keep their Miraculous longer than needed to do the job they were chosen for,” she pointed out. “Letting them keep them without a solid mission makes it far too tempting to use their powers for personal gain.”

“Do you really think _this_ Ladybug and Cat Noir would do that?” Plagg countered.

Tikki shook her head. “No, but that doesn’t change the rules. It isn’t a decision that we—or they—could make, anyway. Only the Guardian could make it.”

“Then maybe we could all convince the Guardian to let them keep us. He was planning on her being the new Guardian, after all.”

“Not anymore.” As far as Tikki knew, the cancellation of Marinette’s training as the new Guardian hadn’t been said officially, but it was pretty well implied, and Marinette hadn’t made any visits to Fu lately. “But . . . I don’t see why we couldn’t ask him. Only if this Ladybug and Cat Noir actually manage to defeat Hawk Moth, though. Otherwise, we’ll have to go to new owners.”

Plagg waved that last part away as if she hadn’t said it. “They’ll get the job done. The trick will be convincing the Guardian. The old man is a stickler for the rules, so it might help to ask some of the other kwamis to put a word in, too.”

An unexpected voice asked, “Convince the Guardian about what?”

Tikki and Plagg both shot into the air and spun to see Longg hovering just inside the closed window. “Longg!” cried Tikki. “What are you doing here?”

The dragon kwami bowed in greeting. “I am serving as the Guardian’s kwami while Wayzz is with a different owner.”

“Master Fu sent you?” Tikki asked, alarmed. “Is there a problem?”

“As it happens, yes, there is a situation that requires the attention of Ladybug and Cat Noir.” Longg didn’t sound particularly bothered by it, but Longg wasn’t ever in much of a hurry about anything, so that didn’t indicate much.

“A supervillain?” Tikki asked.

“Yes,” said Longg. “He appeared more than fifteen minutes ago. This one is not as destructive as most, so the Guardian supposed your owners must not have been woken from their slumber and sent me to have you wake them. The villain is currently wandering the left bank of the Seine. None of the other heroes have shown up yet, either, so I will go wake them once I’m finished here.”

“Then go!” Tikki cried, holding herself back from darting up to Marinette’s room immediately.

Longg frowned. “But I haven’t told you about the villain yet.”

“There’s no time. They’ll do what they always do: figure it out when they get there. Now go wake the others.”

Longg looked in confusion to Plagg, and only when the other kwami didn’t show any interest in his information either did Longg bow a goodbye, phase through the window glass, and fly away.

“I’ll go first,” Tikki told Plagg. “Try not to let Adrien notice she’s gone when he wakes up.”


	78. Chapter 78

In less than a second, Adrien went from deep sleep to full wakefulness. He blinked, realizing that in waking he’d half sat up, one arm propping him up on the chaise longue. As he got his bearings, he stared at the wall of Marinette’s bedroom and noticed that it was still fully night time. What had woken him, then? He could have sworn it had been a flash of light. Maybe a reflection of headlights from a passing car? His brain registered soft sounds from up and to the right of him full seconds after his ears heard them.

He turned his head toward the sounds and whispered, “Marinette?”

There was no answer. Something was off, though—or maybe that was just the strange disconnect of going from dreaming to fully awake suddenly, in the middle of the night, and in a place that was still not his own bedroom even if he’d been waking there for months.

Quietly, not wanting to wake Marinette if she was asleep, he got off the chaise and padded to her bed ladder. When he got high enough to peek over the edge of her bed, he was surprised to find it empty.

_Where did she go? To the bathroom? Up to get some air on the terrace?_

Suddenly, Plagg zipped in front of his face and said, “You need to hurry, Adrien! There’s a supervillain on the riverbank!”

“What?” Adrenaline shot through him. Hawk Moth hadn’t akumatized someone in the middle of the night for a while now. He’d forgotten how jarring it could be.

“Longg came to tell us about it,” Plagg explained. “It’s not noisy, so it didn’t wake you. Ladybug’s already on her way there, and Longg’s going to get the others.”

Any thought of finding Marinette vanished from Adrien’s mind. He softly hopped down to the bedroom floor and hissed, “Plagg, claws out!”

Wary of running into Marinette either on the terrace or downstairs, Cat Noir opened the portal window behind the chaise and slipped out, hoping the darkness hid him from any potential onlookers.

Cat Noir found Ladybug on a roof peak overlooking the river. She was standing still and watching something near the water.

When he landed beside her, she glanced his way. “Good to see you, Cat Noir. Did your kwami wake you, too?”

“More or less,” he said, not able to explain what had actually woken him. He took her hand. “I missed you, Milady. I didn’t see you all day.”

She gave him a tiny smile, squeezed his hand softly, and then pulled away. “Focus, Kitty. Time for work.”

He crossed his arms and looked toward the riverbank. A figure was walking along the edge of the concrete bank as if it were a tightrope. Under the typical ostentatious costume, it seemed to be a young man. He held a small flute or whistle to his mouth, and Cat Noir faintly heard a high-pitched melody coming from it.

The strange part about the situation was the line of animals trailing behind the villain: mostly cats, a few small dogs, a couple large dogs, and the odd rabbit or ferret.

“Some kind of Pied Piper motif?” Cat Noir guessed. As they watched, another cat approached the villain. He knelt to pet it, and the cat joined the back of the line.

“They’ve got to be pets,” Ladybug observed. “Most of them are wearing collars, and if it was _any_ animals, I’d expect to see a lot more rats or some raccoons.”

Cat Noir’s fists clenched. “Stealing people’s pets while they’re sleeping. Not cool.” He heard a sound behind him and looked over his shoulder to see Carapace.

“What’s up, cat-bro. Bug-sis.” Carapace said around a yawn.

Cat Noir smiled fondly. “Stay up late, turtle-bro?” He knew it sounded weird coming from him, but he loved the idea of their team as one big family. Especially since, aside from his fiancée, they were all already his friends.

“I might have been gaming a little,” Carapace admitted. “What’s the sitch?”

“Pied Piper, but with pets,” Cat Noir said.

Carapace didn’t look like he understood the reference.

Her eyes never leaving the villain, Ladybug said, “We can explain once everyone’s here. Let’s wait a few more minutes before engaging. He doesn’t seem to be doing any active damage or threatening any people.”

A few minutes later, the whole team was gathered on that rooftop and up to speed on what they knew about Pied Piper. Ladybug told them the plan, found a safe place on a roof to coordinate them from, and the team launched into action. All except Cat Noir. He stayed with Ladybug, ready to protect her in case the villain had anything unexpected up his sleeves.

The fight was more complicated than it seemed like it should have been. Not only was Pied Piper agile and quick, but his movements were erratic. And there were the animals, who’d been mind-controlled into fighting for him. A rabbit could be a surprisingly irritating opponent when you were trying not to hurt it too badly.

While the villain and his animal minions stayed on the ground and out of Ladybug’s way, Cat Noir could see that she wasn’t exactly breezing along. At first he thought it was the mental strain of planning and communicating with the rest of the team. But the closer he watched her, the more strain he saw in her face and body.

“You okay, Ladybug?” he asked quietly.

She gave one firm nod. “I’m fine.”

But she didn’t look fine. Her breathing was starting to get way too heavy for someone who wasn’t even moving, and one of her hands was pressed against her large belly. When her knees unexpectedly buckled, he caught her. “Ladybug!”

She hissed two big breaths through her teeth, then stood straight. “It’s okay, Cat Noir. Just kind of uncomfortable. I can do this.”

Inside, he was panicking. He wanted to take her somewhere safe where she could rest, but they needed her to cleanse the akuma once they’d defeated the villain. So he stood guard, close enough to catch her every time she started to collapse.

When the plans she’d been trying didn’t work, Ladybug called for her Lucky Charm, hoping for a hint. As soon as he saw the flash of inspiration in her strained eyes, Cat Noir knew it had worked. She tossed the Lucky Charm to King Monkey and rattled off instructions in their earpieces.

By the time they heard a shout of victory from King Monkey and the sound of something smashing, Ladybug’s forehead was damp with sweat, and her breathing was coming in waves of ragged gasps. She caught and purified the akuma as King Monkey and Viperion joined them on the roof. Taking the Lucky Charm from King Monkey, Ladybug tossed it in the air, and the magic ladybugs cleaned up the damage from the fight and returned all the pets to their homes.

As soon as the magic wave passed, Ladybug nearly collapsed again. Cat Noir caught her.

“Ladybug!” Viperion said with concern. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know,” Cat Noir told him. “She’s been getting worse the whole fight, and if the magic ladybugs didn’t fix it, then it wasn’t caused by the villain. I’m gonna take her somewhere she can rest.”

He didn’t wait for an argument, not even from Ladybug. With one swift motion, he scooped her up in his arms and hopped down from the rooftops. At the very least, she should be on the ground if she collapsed again. As he stood there, wondering if it would be safe to bring her to Marinette’s house, Ladybug’s earring beeped a warning.

_Shoot_ _! No time to get to Marinette’s!_ The best he could do was duck behind one of those big, round ad displays on the sidewalk. He glanced around and saw no one. They probably had the late hour to thank for that.

Ladybug grunted and jerked out of his arms, dropping into a squat.

“Ladybug, what’s wrong?” he asked. “Do you want me to—”

A bright flash of pink light shot across her body, and she fell onto her butt, huffing in pain.

“Ladybug?” Cat Noir asked softly, worry for her mixing with confusion at why her nightgown looked so familiar.

Her face was lowered to the ground as she steadied her breathing—and then she looked up at him.

Shock froze him solid.

_No._

_No._

There was no way he was this lucky.

He had to be dreaming.

Even through her obvious discomfort, she quirked a smile at him. A smile that was all Ladybug humor and all Marinette uncertainty. “Hi, Kitty.”

“Marinette,” Cat Noir breathed.

“Does that huge smile on your face mean you’re happy it’s me?”

He nodded harder and faster than he’d ever nodded in his life. A tsunami of emotions filled his heart and sent it straight into his throat, and he couldn’t manage to talk around it.

Marinette was Ladybug. Ladybug was Marinette. He had questions. So many questions. ‘What about Multimouse?’ for one. But the truth was staring him in the face. The girl he loved and the girl he . . . also loved . . . were one and the same. He really could have both.

Nothing he had done or ever would do could possibly make him worthy of this kind of good fortune. It felt like winning the lottery twice over—with the same ticket.

He tried to swallow, tried to breathe, try to say something, but before he could, a faint splash drew his attention downward, and he saw a small, wet spot on the lower part of Marinette’s nightgown.

She groaned. “Crap. He’s coming.”

Cat Noir blinked in confusion and managed to get out, “What?”

“The baby’s coming!” She bit back another groan.

Cat Noir experienced half a second of pure mental blankness, and then his mind snapped into action as a powerful surge of adrenaline coursed through him.

Ladybug was having her baby!

No, wait.

Ladybug was having _his_ baby!

Despite the frantic panic that had just infiltrated his lungs, he didn’t have time to indulge in some hyperventilation. His lady needed him. His child needed him. This was it!

Cat Noir picked Marinette up off the ground, cradling her in his arms just like he’d cradled Ladybug ( _her!_ ) when they’d cuddled after she’d agreed to marry him. ( _I’m marrying Marinette!_ ) The thoughts would just not stop coming, but he had to find a way to push them aside and focus on the present.

He ran as fast as he could in the direction of the hospital, images already filling his mind of the three of them—him, her, and their son—living together, celebrating birthdays and Christmases together just like a normal family.

The desire to tell her who he really was so she could (hopefully) share his joy was nearly overwhelming, and he had to bite his tongue several times to keep from blurting it out.

_Remember all that research you did?_ he reminded himself. _Remember how you looked up all those things that could go wrong so you could freak out about them and she wouldn’t have to? This is that. Don’t freak her out right now. Let her get through this first. She’s got enough to worry about at the moment._

Thinking of how it might hurt Marinette to tell her his identity right now was enough to push most of his questions and thoughts of the future aside to focus on what she needed _right now_. Because right now, his best friend, the love of his life, and the mother of his child was about to push a human out of her body, and that was more important than any other consideration short of actual nuclear apocalypse.

#

Back at the sidewalk where Ladybug had turned into Marinette, Viperion dropped down from a rooftop and strolled to the spot where the magic had happened. He shook his head and gazed in the direction the two had gone, too far to see now. “Finally,” he murmured, smiling.

His Miraculous gave a final beep, and his transformation fell. He caught Sass in one hand. With the other, he scooped an exhausted red kwami off the sidewalk.

“They forget about you?” he asked her.

Even though she was tired and worried, he could see that she was happy, too. “They had more important things on their mind.”

“Do you want to come with me for tonight? I think I have some of Marinette’s cookies at home.”

“Thank you,” Tikki said. He turned to head toward home, not expecting to hear any more from her, but she added, “You’re a good person, Luka. Marinette would have been lucky to have you, too.”

The corners of his lips curled up. “In another life.” As he began to walk home, he told her, “Even if it hadn’t been for the baby, I never could have stood between those two. In a way, I’m glad I was able to make that choice before getting my heart sunk in any deeper.” When he looked down, he found that Tikki and Sass had both fallen asleep in his hands. He chuckled. “Rest up, Tikki. I’ll get you back to her soon.” He’d have to make sure he kept his phone charged and nearby. He had a feeling he’d be hearing from Adrien and Marinette before too long.


	79. Chapter 79

The mother of all cramps tore through Marinette’s abdomen, making her groan loudly in Cat Noir’s arms. _It_ _must be a contraction_ , she thought. _This is really happening._

Clenching her jaw, she rode out the pain until it passed, then looked up to find her partner and fiancé gazing down at her with worry in his green, slitted eyes. “We’re almost to the hospital, Marinette,” he said soothingly. “Don’t worry. I won’t leave you.”

“Adrien,” she gasped. It was hard to talk while she was trying to keep her breathing steady. What were those breathing techniques she’d learned in birthing class? It took her a second to remember, but she tried her best to start them.

Cat Noir’s eyes were wide. “Um, Adrien?” he prompted.

“Agreste,” she clarified. They’d _just_ talked about this the other night. He _knew_ who the father of her baby was. Why was he choosing now to play dumb? “Let him know.”

“Ah.” His attention focused forward on where he was running. “Right. I’ll . . . let him know as soon as I can.”

“And my parents,” she added. “They need to—”

“Marinette, please just focus on yourself right now. You don’t need to worry about anyone else. I’m staying with you, and if I get a chance, I’ll contact the others to let them know.” He looked down at her again, suddenly worried. “Unless . . . you’d rather have them with you than me.”

She hadn’t really thought about who she wanted with her in the delivery room. She’d just assumed it would be her mom. But her mom was in bed asleep, and contacting her parents—or Adrien—would require coming up with an excuse as to why she’d gone into labor out on the street in the middle of the night. And she did not have the energy to devote to that right now. “No, Cat Noir. You’re right. Later.” She reached up to squeeze his shoulder. “I’m glad you’re with me.”

He beamed at her, then picked up a burst of speed as the lights of the hospital approached.

The double doors of the maternity building automatically opened for him as he ran in, though he did have to slow down to avoid running face-first into the glass.

At somewhere around two-thirty a.m., the lobby was entirely empty except for the female nurse behind the front desk. As soon as they entered, the nurse bolted to her feet.

“She’s in labor!” Cat Noir called out.

“Name?” the nurse asked them.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” Cat Noir answered.

The nurse picked up a phone and called for help while she sat down to type on her computer. After she hung up, she asked, “Doctor?”

“Sienne,” Marinette said.

The nurse nodded and made another call.

After relating the information to (Marinette assumed) Dr. Sienne, the nurse continued typing. “Due date?”

“The same due date as everyone else,” Marinette answered with admittedly unwarranted irritation. “Not for three weeks.” _Oh, no, the baby’s premature. Will I have a problem like Alix? Is this because of all_ _my activity as Ladybug_ _?_

A male nurse burst through a pair of double doors to the left, wheeling a gurney. “Place her here, please!”

Cat Noir did as he was told, gently laying Marinette on the gurney. She tried to take his hand so he wouldn’t get too far behind, but another contraction hit, and it took all her focus to deal with that.

The nurse began to wheel her back through the doors. “We can take care of her from here,” he told Cat Noir.

Cat Noir followed them through the doors, staying right at the foot of the gurney. His gaze flicked worriedly from Marinette to the nurse and back.

The nurse did a double-take to Cat Noir, surprised to find him still following. “We’ve got her, Cat Noir. Thanks for your assistance.”

Cat Noir shook his head. “No, you don’t understand.” He locked eyes with the nurse. “I’m the father.”

As her contraction passed, Marinette smiled. The sincerity she heard in Cat Noir’s voice was so sweet to hear. Like it wasn’t even a lie. Because to him, clearly, it wasn’t. He really had already adopted her son as his own, even though she’d only just recently agreed to marry him.

The gurney jerked as the nurse stumbled and stopped in the hallway. His eyes were huge, looking between the two of them. They settled on Marinette, and after a second, she sensed he was waiting for her input.

“He is,” she said. “I want him with me.”

Cat Noir beamed and scrambled to the side of the gurney opposite the nurse to hold Marinette’s hand, careful of his claws. “I’m right here, Marinette. I’ll always be right here.”

“Okay then,” said the nurse, and he resumed wheeling her into a room.

The room was huge—less like a hospital room and more like a large hotel room, with a wide open floor plan, a big TV on one wall, a full couch against another, and even a bathroom and kitchenette in addition to a couple areas for necessary medical equipment and such. It was unexpected, but Marinette didn’t have much energy to focus on it other than the simple thought, _Gabriel Agreste_. He must have made some serious prior arrangements for her to get such an amazing delivery room on such short notice.

Once in the room, Cat Noir picked her up and set her on the strange delivery bed that had hand rails and multiple movable and removable parts. “How are you doing?” he asked softly.

“So bad!” she groaned.

He smoothed the hair back from her forehead, the glove of his magical suit oddly cool and soothing. “I’m sorry, Milady,” he murmured to her.

The nurse busied himself with something, then came to her with a folded hospital gown in hand. “She’ll need to change. Do you”—his gaze flicked between her and Cat Noir with that same curiosity and confusion as before—“want me to send in a female nurse to help?”

At the same time as Marinette nodded, Cat Noir said, “Yes, please.”

The male nurse left, and a few seconds later, a new female nurse came in. Marinette managed to get to her feet, and Cat Noir turned away. She kept holding onto his hand for balance, only releasing it for as long as she had to in order to get her arm through a sleeve hole. It was embarrassing getting naked in front of a lady she literally just met seconds before, let alone with Cat Noir standing right there next to her (even though he wasn’t looking). But she was in so much pain and discomfort and not a little panic, the embarrassment hardly registered.

Once she was dressed in the gown, the nurse and Cat Noir helped her back onto the bed slowly enough to keep everything covered in the process, and the nurse put a blanket over her.

The male nurse came back in, and the two of them asked her more questions and set up the fetal monitor, careful to preserve her modesty as much as they could, which she appreciated.

The sight of the monitor and all those wires triggered her worry, reminding her that something bad might happen. “It’s only thirty-seven weeks,” she asked the closest nurse. “Is that too soon?”

The nurse shook her head. “It’s fine. You shouldn’t have any problems because of that. We’ve already had plenty of perfectly healthy Fairy Grandmother babies born here in the past week.”

Cat Noir squeezed Marinette’s hand. “See? Nothing to worry about. It’s going to be fine.”

Marinette let herself relax and blow out a breath.

The door to the room opened just as another contraction hit. She squeezed her eyes shut against it, so she didn’t see the person enter, but she heard a familiar voice ask, “How long between contractions?”

“I—uh—I don’t know,” Cat Noir admitted. “She’s been looking like she was in some kind of pain for maybe half an hour, but I didn’t realize she was actually in labor until her water broke.”

The contraction passed, and Marinette looked up to see Dr. Sienne pulling on some gloves. She tried to smile in greeting, but it felt pretty weak.

“Good evening, Marinette,” Dr. Sienne said, her smile much more natural-looking. “You’ve only been in labor for half an hour?”

Marinette shook her head. “I think it’s been longer. Maybe two hours? I couldn’t sleep, but I thought it was just normal discomfort until it started getting really bad.”

Dr. Sienne nodded. “Okay.” She raised an eyebrow at Cat Noir as if just realizing how strange it was to have a superhero in the room.

The male doctor leaned over to whisper something to her.

Dr. Sienne’s eyes widened, looking between them, then she said, “I’m going to see what the situation is, okay?” Marinette wasn’t sure what she meant until she moved to the end of the bed. “Can you pull your feet back?” Marinette scooted her feet back on the mattress, and the doctor grabbed the end of the bed and pulled it away. “The delivery bed transforms into a birthing bed,” Dr. Sienne explained. She pulled some stirrups out and guided Marinette’s feet onto them. “This type of bed allows for multiple birthing positions, so I may have you shift position, depending on how things go. And if you feel uncomfortable and want to change positions at any point, let me know and we can get you shifted into something that feels better. But for right now, I need to have a look at what’s going on.”

When Dr. Sienne pulled the sheet up to Marinette’s knees, Marinette quickly looked around the room. The male nurse had moved to a different part of the room to get a tray of tools ready, and Cat Noir was by Marinette’s shoulder, holding her hand. This whole situation still made her feel exposed and embarrassed, but she felt a little better that the only people looking at her down there were women. But even though she knew it was coming, she still twitched in unpleasant surprise when she felt Dr. Sienne’s gloved hands.

“Oh, yes, you are almost fully dilated,” Dr. Sienne said. “Young, first time mothers usually don’t give birth nearly so quickly. Let’s hope this is a good sign. A quick and easy birth—relatively speaking—would be nice.”

Another contraction made Marinette hold her breath, and her hand tightened around Cat Noir’s as she clenched her eyes shut. The cramping in her uterus and back was so painful, she groaned, then shifted to panting.

She heard Dr. Sienne’s calm voice say, “The baby’s in the correct position. You’re doing great, Marinette. Any urge to push yet?”

Marinette shook her head.

“I’d ask if you want an epidural,” Dr. Sienne said, “but I don’t think we’re going to have time for it. This baby’s coming fast.”

Even after the contraction passed, Marinette still felt like hot crap, so she kept her eyes closed and squeezed Cat Noir’s hand.

Two more contractions passed, the doctor and Cat Noir quietly encouraging Marinette the whole time. She was so sweaty, and she hurt so much. “Why is this happening?” she complained in a whine as another contraction passed. It was a stupid question that she didn’t expect an answer to, but she felt like she had a right at the moment to complain about the situation she was in.

Cat Noir brushed her hair back from her face and kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry, Marinette,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

“Adrien,” she whimpered. “He should be here.” He’d spent all that time in birthing class preparing for this with her; he’d gone to all those previous appointments, walking through each step with her; he’d given so much of himself in the last few months to see to her needs and keep her comfortable. He deserved to be here for the birth of his son.

And then, miraculously, she heard his voice right next to her ear. “I’m here, Marinette.”

She opened her eyes and saw . . . Cat Noir. Of course it was him. Her kitty. Even if Adrien couldn’t be here, the boy who loved her was here. Through her pain, she found a smile for him. “I know, Cat Noir. Thank you.”

Another contraction ripped through her.

She groaned. “I need to move.” When the contraction passed, the doctor and nurse helped her shift into a different position—on her knees on the lower level of the bed that the doctor had moved into place. Even though Marinette wasn’t sure she was mentally able to care at this point, the nurse was thoughtful enough to get the sheet tied around her waist to keep her covered from Cat Noir’s view. Marinette wrapped her hands around the rails on the side of the bed and felt reassuring strokes down her spine from Cat Noir’s hand.

It felt a lot like the way Adrien started the back massages he gave her, and it automatically helped her relax, even if only a tiny amount.

“Does that feel better?” Cat Noir asked.

Marinette nodded. She could feel the baby moving inside her. Shifting. Something was happening.

“When you feel the need to push,” said the doctor, “go ahead and push.”

Marinette panted faster as something built up inside her. She breathed harder. Harder. She felt so hot.

An urgent urge to push hit her like a truck, and she didn’t try to hold it back. Her whole body clenched as she strained to push, groaning with the effort, though she tried her best to keep her pelvic muscles relaxed. She hoped doing all those Kegels and stretches was helping now. She thought it was; as bad as she felt, there wasn’t any tearing-like pain.

“You can do it, Marinette,” Cat Noir encouraged. “Hang in there. You got this.”

She stopped pushing, her body relaxing for the moment.

“That was a good push,” said Dr. Sienne. “Just like that next time. You’re doing great.”

It wasn’t long before another push tightened her whole body. She cried out with the effort. She felt something come out, but it wasn’t the baby. “Aargh! Ah! Oh, crap!”

“What?” Panicked, Cat Noir leaned instinctively toward the other side of the sheet.

“Don’t look!”

“Why?”

She grabbed his bell to pull his face close to hers. With wide eyes, she said in an urgent, haunted whisper, as if warning him of a primordial monster in the basement, “There’s poop!”

Cat Noir’s face turned pink, then he covered his mouth with his hand and laughed.

The doctor chuckled as the nurse cleaned up down there.

Marinette glared at her partner. “Don’t laugh at me!”

“Sorry,” he said, still laughing. “It’s just . . . you’re too cute.”

“Cute? Cute?!” Still holding his bell, she yanked him closer and pressed her forehead against his threateningly. “If I weren’t in labor right now, I’d launch you off the Eiffel Tower!”

His eyes widened and darted to the doctor and nurse behind her.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, a voice was screaming that she’d just made a huge mistake, but that was a problem for later.

“Aargh!” Another uncontrollable urge to push made her bear down, her hands clenching around the bed railing and Cat Noir’s bell. Her partner jerked toward her, losing his balance, but caught himself before he fell on top of her. When she stopped pushing, he gently pried her hand off his bell and stood straighter, slipping one of his hands into hers.

Dr. Sienne’s voice was excited. “Almost there, Marinette. I can see the head. Just a little farther.”

_The head. She can see my baby’s head. He’s almost here!_

She pushed again, straining against something ridiculously large. But she felt movement, and a sudden relief of some of the pressure.

“His head’s out,” Dr. Sienne said. “One more push to get past his shoulders.”

Marinette looked into Cat Noir’s eyes and saw the same anticipation and excitement that she felt. When the next push came, she clenched his hand tight and gave it all she had.

It was so hard, and it hurt so much, but when the pressure eased and something slid out of her, the instant relief she felt made her sag forward onto the bed as she tried to catch her breath. She pressed her forehead to the elevated back of the mattress, gasping in relief.

“He’s here, Marinette,” Dr. Sienne said, her voice full of warm pleasure. “Your son’s here.”

Marinette looked beside her to see Cat Noir staring at something with a look of shock and awe.

“Don’t turn around yet,” said the doctor. “Let’s try to get the placenta out.”

Marinette nodded, turning her head to look over her shoulder. She caught a glimpse of the baby squirming in the nurse’s hands as the nurse cleaned him up. Marinette was eager to get a better look at him, but she wanted to finish the job first. She felt another contraction—smaller than before—and pushed. Something else gushed out.

“There it is,” said Dr. Sienne. “You can turn around now.”

Cat Noir helped Marinette turn around to lie on her back. Once she was settled, he leaned over to kiss her forehead, lingering for several seconds with his lips on her sweat-damp skin. “You’re amazing, you know that?” There were actual tears in his eyes. “I love you so much. You’re unbelievable.”

She was too tired to respond, but she smiled in gratitude at his words.

The nursefinished cleaning the baby and laid him on Marinette’s chest. As her hands wrapped around his body—he’d seemed so big coming out of her, but so small now—and felt his soft skin, something about the world changed. She was a mother, really for real now. She had a son. This tiny, amazing, perfect little person was part of her, and she felt so much love for him, she didn’t know how to keep it all inside her body.

It started leaking out through her eyes. “He’s perfect,” she cried.

“Of course he is,” Cat Noir said. “He’s”—his voice hitched—“yours.” He reached a hand out to the baby, but pulled it back once he realized he still had some sharp claws on right now.

“Do you want to cut the cord?”

They looked up to find Dr. Sienne holding out a pair of scissors toward Cat Noir.

He looked at Marinette, one eyebrow raised for permission. She shrugged one shoulder, telling him it was his decision.

Carefully, Cat Noir took the scissors, worked his clawed fingertips through the circular holes in the handles, and snipped the umbilicalcord where the doctor indicated.

Dr. Sienne stood up from her stool, moved it aside, and said, “He appears perfectly healthy. The nurse will clean up, and then we’ll all give you three some time alone before we need to take the next steps. Congratulations.” Her gaze slid to Cat Noir, and her smile quirked in a strange way. “To both of you.”

After she left, Marinette got lost in looking at her son, not paying attention as the nurse cleaned up the bed and put the lower part back on to make it a full-length bed again, then put a new blanket over Marinette and took the old one away. The nurse pulled the baby away for just a minute—and only to a station a few feet away—before handing him back cleaner and swaddled in a small blanket. Then she gracefully exited the room.

For a little while, the only sound was the baby’s crying and squirming, gradually settling down into tiny mews and little baby grunts. Marinette stroked his soft, soft cheek with her finger. Even though she’d gone through a lot of very real physical pain and discomfort to get to this point, it still felt so surreal. Like she would come to her senses any moment and remember this was someone else’s baby. Because she couldn’t possibly have a baby at her age, right? She didn’t even have a boyfriend.

Except that she did have a baby. And no boyfriend, but a fiancé. Her life had moved pretty fast these past nine months. It was hard for her emotions to keep up.

“He looks like you,” Cat Noir said softly.

She huffed in amusement, remembering how Alix had responded to Adrien saying the same thing. “You can’t know that yet.” Though the baby did have dark hair like Marinette.

When her son’s precious little eyes cracked open for a second, though, and they looked into hers, she could see that they were green.

She smiled. _A little of both of_ _us_ _._ Good.

“What do you want to name him?” Cat Noir asked.

Marinette had been thinking about that for many months, torn over whether it would be okay to use the name that she’d planned to use for her and Adrien’s first child now that it was Cat Noir she was going to marry. But she decided that she’d been overthinking things again. All of that was way too much to pack up in something as small as a name.

She answered, “I’ve always liked the name Louis.”

Cat Noir nodded. “It’s a good name. Louis Dupain-Cheng.” He made an exaggerated show of reconsidering. “Although . . . ”

“What?”

“If you really mean to marry me, you could give him _my_ last name.”

Since she didn’t know his last name, all she could do was joke, “Noir?”

He laughed. “Louis Noir. It does have a certain ring to it. But I was thinking more like . . . Louis Agreste.”

At first, she didn’t understand the joke he was trying to make. Was he pretending to be Adrien? That would be a little insensitive for him. Or was he saying . . . he was Adrien?

Confused, she searched his eyes for answers and found no teasing at all, only incredible warmth and love.

She gasped. “You’re—you’re not . . . ”

He smiled a sweet, adoring smile. “Claws in.”

With a flash of green light, Cat Noir turned into Adrien, standing beside her in the same pajamas he’d gone to sleep on her chaise longue in.

So many emotions overwhelmed Marinette that she started panting again. Her heart flopped around like a landed fish inside her rib cage. _Howhowhowhowhow_ —

The boy she’d loved for a year and a half. The boy who’d crushed her heart so badly. The boy who, time and time again, had told her they were only friends. The boy who loved someone else. Who was seeing someone else. Who’d recently gotten engaged to . . .

_On the same night._

How had she never seen it? How had she never guessed?

Because they were so different. Such incredibly different people. How could they possibly be the same person? Adrien was sweet and gentle and reserved. Cat Noir was loud and flirtatious and over the top. They were different people.

But they weren’t.

Did she even know either of them at all?

But if he was here, if he was really Cat Noir, then the girl he loved was _her_. The girl he was already engaged to was _her_. And he _had_ been here for the birth of his son. He’d even told her so when she’d called his name.

She’d fought so hard with herself to come to terms with how jumbled and complicated her life had become. How could everything fall into such perfect order so neatly, like a scattered deck of cards gathered and shuffled by an expert dealer?

Adrien was here, and he loved her, and he loved their son, and he wanted to marry her, and they _could_ , and they were _going to_.

Marinette was so overwhelmed with joy—and still feeling a bunch of other emotions all mixed in there, too—that her panting turned to gasping turned to sobbing. Tears poured from her eyes even as her nose started to drip and saliva unaccountably pooled in her mouth, her emotions leaking out of every one of her face holes.

Leave it to Marinette to be a messy wreck on the best night of her life.


	80. Chapter 80

So, apparently the girl he loved hated his guts. That was the only explanation Adrien could come up with for why her reaction to seeing his identity was to start bawling her eyes out.

Okay, no, to be fair, she’d told him he was a good friend, and he believed her about that. But it was possible to love someone as a friend and still be repulsed by the idea ofgetting romantic with them.

Although she had once said that he wasn’t gross . . .

Overall, Adrien was very confused.

“Marinette, I’m sorry! Whatever I did, I’m sorry!” Adrien’s hands were in the air, uselessly indecisive about what to do. Marinette was crying, and the baby had started crying again in reaction to her, and Adrien didn’t know which to try to comfort first. Comforting the baby would mean holding him, which would mean taking him from her, which might upset her more. So, Marinette first. Right. “Marinette, it’s okay. You don’t have to cry. What can I do to help? Do you want me to transform back?”

Although she didn’t stop crying, she shook her head.

“I want to help, Marinette. What do you need? Is my being here upsetting you? Should . . . should I go away?” That seemed the most likely answer, since she’d started crying as soon as he’d shown his face, but his chest tightened painfully at the thought.

To his relief, she shook her head again. “Come here.”

That was the opposite of going away, which was good, but he was still confused. “I’m right here, Marinette.”

Her sobbing was gradually slowing down, though all the wetness leaking from her face wasn’t. She scooted a little away from him on the bed, until she was pressed against the opposite side rails. Then she repeated, “Come here.”

At first he’d thought she was trying to get farther away from him, but when she said that, he realized she was making room for him. “Oh! Right!” She was upset and wanted to be held. That, he understood. He could do that. Adrien slid into the bed beside her, under the blanket. It was a snug fit for the two of them, but if Marinette had wanted space, she wouldn’t have told him to get in the bed.

As soon as he was beside her, she pressed her wet face into his shoulder. He could feel that she wouldhave been clinging to him with her hands if she weren’t holding their baby.

 _Our baby. Our baby!_ The moment he’d seen the naked, dirty, squirming little thing in the doctor’s hands, everything had changed. It felt like his heart literally grew in size, expanding to fit all the extra love it had to hold. Adrien had already loved his son, but actually seeing him with his own eyes was . . . indescribable, really. It was something that shouldn’t have been real but was. It was life-changing in the best possible way.

Adrien snaked one arm between the mattress and Marinette’s shoulders, wrapping the other lightly over her and their child. She pressed her face into his chest and continued to cry. He still couldn’t tell what was upsetting her, but she was pulling him closer instead of pushing him away, so at least that meant it wasn’t him.

“I’m here, Marinette,” he murmured. “Whatever’s wrong, I’ll help you with it. I want you to be happy, no matter what.”

It felt like she shook her head against him, but she didn’t speak, so he just kept holding them.

“What do you think’s wrong, Plagg?” he asked softly when he saw his kwami floating near his head.

“How should I know?” Plagg asked. “Birth stuff is really more Sugarcube’s area. Where is she, anyway?”

Adrien glanced around as well as he could without moving. The room was big with lots of places to hide, but there was no reason for Tikki to hide at the moment. Though now that he thought of it, he hadn’t seen Tikki at all since Ladybug detransformed. Marinette didn’t have a bag with her, and there were no pockets in her nightgown, so there wasn’t really anywhere for Tikki to have been hiding. “I . . . I don’t know!” Adrien realized with alarm.

Not lifting her face from his chest, Marinette turned it enough to peek up at him with worry in her bloodshot eyes.

“Tikki!” Plagg called, darting around the room. There was no answer. He came back to the bed and crossed his arms. “You lost her.”

Adrien gulped. This was bad. “I’m sure it’s fine,” he said, trying to reassure all three of them. “She’s a kwami, not a small child. Plagg, go back to the spot where Marinette detransformed and see if she’s still there. If not, check Marinette’s house, then the homes of all the other Miraculous holders, then the homes of our other friends. And Master Fu’s of course. If she’s not where we left her and she hasn’t come here, she’s probably in one of those places.” It would have been easier to just call the other Miraculous holders and Master Fu to see if she was with them, but neither he nor Marinette had their phones with them. “And if you can, bring me my phone from her room.”

Plagg nodded acknowledgment and flew toward the window. Instead of immediately phasing through it, he threw the latch and pushed it open a crack before exiting, most likely so he could get back in without phasing when he brought Adrien’s phone.

“I left her,” Marinette whined.

Adrien stroked her upper arm. “It’ll be fine. Plagg will find her. I’m sure she understands.”

Marinette sniffled but didn’t argue. Adrien’s hand moved on its own from her arm to Louis’s head, feathering his fingers lightly over the fine hair.

“He’s really here,” Adrien murmured. Louis had stopped crying and was making soft, grunty sounds that were the cutest thing Adrien had ever heard. When Louis didn’t react to his fingertips, Adrien cupped Louis’s head in his hand, caressing it gently. “Hello, Little Bun,” he murmured. “It’s nice to meet you. Remember me? I’m your daddy.”

Marinette let out a sob, and he shifted his gaze to find her looking at him with huge, watery eyes. He pulled his hand back instinctively, afraid he’d upset her. Maybe human mothers were super protective of their newborns the same way some animals were. He didn’t want to risk upsetting Marinette more if that was the case.

“It’s okay,” she said, and it sounded like she was choking back another sob. “Do you want to hold him?”

With every fiber of his being, he did. But he also loved seeing her holding him. There was something so unbelievably pure and precious about the sight of the girl he loved holding their baby to her chest. “Can I?” he asked in a thin voice.

She nodded and moved her hands under Louis to shift him toward Adrien. Taking his arm out from under her, Adrien adjusted himself to lie beside her on the inclined bed and very carefully took his son and laid Louis on his own chest.

Tears sprang into his eyes immediately as he held Louis’s tiny body in his hands and saw his son’s adorable face pressed against his t-shirt. Louis’s delicate fingers moved, grasping at the fabric, and Adrien offered the infant one of his own fingertips. Louis latched onto it with a surprisingly firm grip.

“I love you,” Adrien murmured to his son as tears spilled down his cheeks. “I love you. I love you.” He dropped his head to press a kiss to the top of Louis’s head. “I’ll always love you, Louis. No matter what. I’ll never make you wonder or worry if that’s true. I promise.”

Beside him, Marinette squeezed Adrien’s arm, then leaned in and kissed his cheek.

He looked at her in surprise.

She was smiling, not crying anymore, though her face was still wet. “We’re so lucky to have you, Adrien.”

“We?” he asked, still concerned about the whole crying-when-she-found-out-who-he-was thing.

She nodded. “That is . . . still what you want, right?”

“Of course! But . . . ” He frowned. There was still so much he didn’t understand. “What about Luka?”

Marinette blinked at him and returned his frown. “What _about_ Luka?”

“I thought you were with him.”

She blinked again. “Luka? That’s who you thought I was seeing? Why?”

“Uh . . . because he’s clearly crazy about you? And I thought you were into him, too?”

She sat up a little higher in the bed and wiped her face on a corner of the blanket. “It happened so long ago, I sort of assumed everyone else knew.”

“What happened?” Surely Luka wouldn’t have hurt her.

“Remember the party at Nino’s?”

“Yeah. I saw you talking to Luka. You looked so close, I . . . ” He cringed inwardly at his past self. “I was really happy for you two. I was totally rooting for you.”

She laughed bitterly. “Yeah, well . . . that was when he told me that he wasn’t going to pursue me anymore because he couldn’t handle being a teen father, and since he hadn’t gotten anyone pregnant, he had a choice about it.”

Anger at Luka on Marinette’s behalf temporarily blinded Adrien to all reason. “That’s horrible!”

“No, it’s not, Adrien. And I wasn’t _that_ into him, anyway. I probably would have been, though, if he had been interested. At least, after you . . . made it clear you didn’t want to be more than friends.”

All of Adrien’s sudden anger turned on himself. “I almost lost you because of that, didn’t I? I was already regretting closing that door even before I found out you’re Ladybug. If I hadn’t had another shot with you as your second choice, I would have lost you.”

Marinette said, “Actually . . . Cat Noir wasn’t really my second choice. Luka would have been my second choice.”

Adrien’s mouth fell open. “I was your _third_ choice?! Oh, sheesh, I got so lucky—”

Marinette laughed. “No, Adrien. You were my first and third choices.”

“Huh?”

“You don’t realize it?”

“Realize . . . ?” He thought through what she was saying. If Luka wasn’t who she was seeing, and Luka wasn’t her first choice, then the guy she was seeing was . . . well, him, obviously, but she’d only agreed to let him court her after giving up on the guy she loved, who was . . . who was . . . the father of her child. Which was him. “M-me?”

She smiled and nodded, her cheeks turning a little pink.

“ _I’m_ the boy you loved?”

Another nod.

“For—for how long?”

She blushed harder and dropped eye contact. “Since the day you gave me your umbrella.”

He thought back . . . and back . . . and back . . . to the day after they’d met. The first day they’d met outside of the masks. “The whole time?!”

Shyly, Marinette nodded.

Keeping one hand cradling his son to his chest, Adrien reached the other arm around Marinette to pull her closer to him. For a few seconds, he was deliriously happy. Until more bits of memory fell into context. “Which means I’m the one who hurt you. I’m the one who made you so desperate to be loved that you were willing to marry someone you didn’t love back. Marinette, I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t know. If I’d known how you felt . . . ”

“You would have given up on Ladybug?”

He thought about it and came to some uncomfortable conclusions. “No. Not if it had been before Fairy Grandmother. And after . . . I don’t know. Maybe?”

“If you had, you would have been unhappy. You’re too loyal to switch who you love that easily.”

She was right. “Except it would have worked out in the end. Because you are Ladybug.”

“It did work out in the end,” she said, snuggling into his side. “And don’t feel bad about hurting me. I know you didn’t mean to. Like you said, you didn’t even know I loved you. Unlike me, who kept rejecting you for so long even after I found out you were serious about loving me.”

He kissed the top of her head. “It worked out in the end.” Adrien kept his hand on Louis’s back while Marinette cupped their son’s head, gently stroking it with her thumb. He smiled and added, “And I even got my Little Bun as a bonus prize.”

Marinette raised an eyebrow at him. “Why do you keep calling him Little Bun?”

He chuckled. “Private joke. Can’t a guy give his baby a pet name?”

She didn’t argue but relaxed more against him. She was probably still really tired from the whole childbirth ordeal.

“You know, Marinette,” he said, “you made a liar out of me. I told your dad I wasn’t going to marry you.”

“You made a liar out of me, too,” she responded. “I told everyone my baby wasn’t yours.”

He chuckled nervously, slightly concerned that she hadn’t directly addressed the marriage issue he’d just brought up. Given that they were cuddling quite comfortably together and she’d implied she still wanted to be with him, he was pretty sure he knew the answer. But he needed to be absolutely sure. “So . . . to be clear, because when you said yes before you didn’t know who I was, you . . . do still want to marry me, right? Because, to be clear, I still completely, one hundred percent want to marry you.”

She smiled at him, pure joy lighting up her gorgeous blue eyes. “Of course I do, Adrien. I love you, remember?? Marrying you is something I’ve . . . well, honestly, I’ve been dreaming about it for longer than I really want to admit.” She pressed her face into him as if to hide her shame.

Even though he was already pretty relaxed, lying in the bed with her, he still managed to sag in relief. “I’ve probably wanted to marry you for longer, and I don’t mind admitting it. I may have staged a wedding between my Ladybug and Cat Noir action figures once or twice.”

She peeked up at him and laughed. “You did not.”

“I did.”

She tapped her fingertips together. “For a long time, I had your schedule mapped out on a chart in my room. In detail.”

He laughed. “Is that all?”

“Remember all the photos I used to have up? You saw them when Jagged Stone did that show at our house.”

“I do remember. I asked you about them, and you told me to my face that it was only because you’re a fan of fashion.” If she’d been honest with him then, what would he have done? Probably politely turned her down, to be honest. Idiot that he was. He’d only been teasing her, anyway. If he’d had any idea that she might actually have liked him, he wouldn’t have put her on the spot about it. “But keep going. I’m enjoying this.”

“You’re laughing at me.”

“I’m laughing with you.”

“You don’t think I’m creepy?”

“Never. What else?”

She sighed. “That chest in my room?”

“The one you never open?”

“Presents for your next thirty-five birthdays.”

He sputtered in disbelief. “Really?”

“Why would I make that up?” she asked, her face red with embarrassment.

He gave her a squeeze with the arm he still had around her. “I’m flattered, Milady. Anything else?”

“Well . . . I may have actually had the name of our first child picked out for a while. And our second and third.”

Adrien couldn’t fight back the laugh that burst from him, even though he knew he should have. “Which are?”

“Emma and Hugo.”

Emma. Close to Emilie. He nodded. “I approve. Not that it matters, really. You were going to veto any name choices I made, anyway.”

“Did I say that?”

“You get to name the kids, and I get to name the pets,” he reminded her. “That was our deal, right?”

She grinned. “Right. Good thing I’m prepared, then.”

“You’re always prepared, Milady. Or at least you always make it look that way. Although, you never did answer me about my suggestion.”

“What suggestion?”

Once again, he was irrationally nervous about her answer. They never had actually talked about this part, in either identity. “Louis Agreste. And maybe, later on, you could be Marinette Agreste? You know, so we all match.” When she didn’t answer him for a full second, he started backtracking. “Or I could change my name to Adrien Dupain-Cheng, if you’d rather go that way.” He was definitely willing to give her that, if she asked for it.

“Or we could both change our names to Agreste-Dupain-Cheng?” she suggested. He could hear the teasing in her tone.

Adrien winced. “Surely there’s an upper limit on hyphenates.”

She giggled. “You already have four middle names. I think three last names would be overdoing it. And I like the sound of Marinette Agreste better anyway.”

Grinning, he kissed her forehead. “So do I.” He gave her a mock-suspicious eyebrow raise. “You’re not just marrying me for my name and fashion connections, are you?”

Marinette sucked in a breath like she was genuinely worried he thought that. “Of course not!”

“Marinette, I’m teasing. It’s okay. Sorry, I guess you still don’t like my jokes much. I really should have learned my lesson after the wax museum fiasco.”

They were both quiet for a moment, wallowing in the remembered humiliation of that day.

“I didn’t really know it was you pretending to be a statue,” she murmured against his shirt.

“Second time you told me you weren’t interested in me,” he pointed out. He felt like an idiot for not figuring out she liked him, if she’d been in love with him as long as she said, but she had flat-out lied to him about it more than once, so he figured he had a good excuse. Not that it made having unknowingly hurt her weigh any less on his conscience.

“I was scared,” she admitted. “And then you mentioned a girl you love, and I just . . . I came so close to giving up right then.”

“I was talking about you,” he said. “Not that either of us could have known that at the time.” He replayed more of that day in his mind. Going to a closed wax museum with friends had been such an exciting prospect, until everyone had been acting so weird, then he’d really ruined it by trying to prank Marinette. And then, of course, Hawk Moth had akumatized someone. Adrien snorted softly. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice you then. Marinette disappeared and then Ladybug showed up literally seconds later—inside a closed wax museum, with hardly anyone else even around. The general public might think you have some special akuma sensor or something, but I know that’s not how it works. Why didn’t I question how you got there so quickly?”

Marinette shook softly against him with quiet, nervous laughter. “Why didn’t I? I told Adrien to get somewhere safe, and then seconds later Cat Noir made the same inexplicable appearance. Now that I think of it, that happened a lot. Why did we never question it?”

“Too busy fighting the bad guys, I guess.” A strange thought occurred to him. “Uh, Marinette? Lightheadedness when supervillains show up isn’t really a pregnancy symptom, isn’t it?”

She giggled loudly.

“I’ll take that as a no.” If he’d had a hand that wasn’t currently holding one of the two most precious people in the world to him, he’d have face-palmed. He settled for a groan. “And here I was just so grateful for you giving me an excuse to get out of class.”

She laughed again. “Seems like we make a pretty good team even when it’s by accident.”

“Do you think they give out Tonies for Most Unnecessary Theatrical Performance?” he asked.

“No, but if they did, I’m sure we’d win about a hundred of them.” Her voice went higher. “ ‘Oh, no, an akuma attack! I feel faint! I’d better go lie down!’ ”

Adrien joined in with his role, right on cue. “ ‘Here, Marinette, let me help you to the nurse’s office. No one will question this because pregnant women can get away with anything.’ ”

“ ‘Thanks, Adrien. But now that we’re here, could you go away and leave me alone?’ ”

“ ‘Are you sure? I’m offering, even though I’d be in kind of a bind if you asked me to stay.’ ”

“ ‘Super duper sure. Now kindly go away.’ ”

“ ‘You’re not going right back to class, are you? Because that would be awkward for me.’ ”

“ ‘Nope. Just gonna lie here on this bed for exactly as long as it takes Ladybug to defeat the villain.’ ”

“ ‘That sounds both convenient _and_ plausible.’ ”

Marinette cracked up, which made Adrien absolutely lose it. Between the delightful sound of her laughter and realization of how ridiculous they’d both been, he laughed so hard that the bouncing of his chest made Louis start to fuss and cry. “Oh, oh, sorry, Little Bun,” he cooed, forcibly suppressing his laughter but unable to wipe the huge smile off his face. “It’s okay. Shh.”

Marinette reined in her own laughter most of the way. Raising an eyebrow at him, she asked, “Seriously, why that nickname?”

“I told you: private joke.”

“Come on, tell me.”

“You’re gonna smack me.”

“I will not.”

Adrien weighed the pros and cons before deciding she was going to force it out of him sooner or later, and he wasn’t willing to give up the nickname to make her stop. “Because he’s the bun that I put in your oven.”

Blushing, she smacked his arm. “A bakery pun?”

“I didn’t even tell you the whole thing.”

“Never mind. I don’t want to hear it.”

With a Cheshire grin, he whispered, “No, you don’t.”

She smacked him again.

He laughed. “To be honest, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed at the thought of being a dad to your baby _and_ my baby. It really simplifies things that they’re the same baby.”

She eyed him. “Why did I never realize what a dork you are?”

“Probably because you were too in love with me.”

She booped his nose. “Arrogant kitty.”

He leaned down to nudge her head with his own. “It’s true, though, right?”

She peeked at him, then looked away, her cheeks pink. “It’s true.”

Adrien squeezed her against him. “I love you so much, Marinette. I thought I loved you as much as I possibly could as Ladybug. Then I started falling in love with you as Marinette, even though I didn’t realize it because it felt different than it did with Ladybug. I am so unbelievably, indescribably happy that it turns out the girl who makes my heart race so hard I think it’s gonna burst and the girl who fills my heart with the most calming peace its ever known are the same girl.”

Marinette wrapped an arm tight around his stomach and gazed up into his eyes. “I know exactly what you mean. I love you, Adrien. It’s gonna take my brain some time to reconcile the two of you together, but I couldn’t be happier that the boy I love and my best friend are the same boy.”

As he lay there with her and their son, holding them both as tightly as he dared, Marinette looking into his eyes with such glowing love, it was the most natural thing in the world to dip his head and kiss her softly on the lips. She returned the kiss with gentle, sweet pressure of her own, and something in his heart locked into place. This was it. They were together, Adrien and Marinette, from now on. There would be no separating them. No more heartbreak or uncertainty or rejection or fear. He smiled against her mouth, then pulled back enough to say, “Partners forever, Milady?”

She stroked his cheek lovingly. “Partners forever, Kitty.”

He leaned his head back against the mattress and let out a whoosh of air. “I was planning on so many more people in this relationship.”

She raised up on an elbow to look at him. “Huh?”

Since she’d moved away from his arm, he used that hand to count off. “Me, Marinette, Ladybug—”

“Both me,” she said.

He kept counting. “Luka a.k.a. Marinette’s guy—”

“You,” she said.

“Ladybug’s baby’s father—”

“Also you.”

“And the girl Ladybug’s baby’s father loved.”

“Also me.”

He laughed. “Oh, man, I bought _such_ a big house.”

Marinette sat up even more and gave Adrien a very confused look. “You what?”

Okay, this was . . . not the best timing. He sat up straighter, using both hands to keep Louis in place against his chest. “So, uh . . . you know that idea I floated earlier? About you and I and the girl I loved (which is you) and your guy (which is me) living in a house together?”

“The idea that we haven’t discussed at all since then? Yes, I remember.”

“I kind of, um . . . went ahead with it. I mean, I asked Father to buy a house for me, and he agreed, and it’s kind of . . . pretty much a done deal.”

Her eyes widened in shock.

“It happened quicker than I expected!” he said, as if that was an adequate defense.

For a second, it looked like she might blow up at him. Slowly, the shock in her expression faded to disbelief and something like amusement. “So, you made decisions affecting other people, planning out their lives for them, and just expected them to go along with it. Does that sound like anyone else you know?”

He felt like this was a trick question, but he couldn’t quite see what she was getting at.

Until she added, in a tone softened by an ironic smile, “I guess you are your father’s son, aren’t you?”

All the air left his lungs—or at least that was what it felt like. He definitely forgot how to breath for a while there. He really had done the same thing his father had been doing his whole life—a thing he _hated_. When he found his breath again, he gasped, “Marinette, I’m so sorry! I didn’t even think of it that way. I—I was only trying to find the best way to help everyone. I didn’t mean to be controlling! I’ll totally understand if you want to dump the idea. I am so sorry. I should have talked it out all the way with you first, but instead I just jumped ahead and—”

“Adrien, Adrien, it’s okay.” She cupped his face with one hand and stroked his cheek with her thumb. “As long as you see it, that’s the important thing. I’m not going to dismiss the idea just because you went ahead without me.”

He hung his head, filled with shame for repeating the same behavior he held against his father. Never would he have thought himself capable of that, but it had happened without Adrien even realizing it. He’d only been trying to help. “I . . . I would still like to do it, if you decide you want to.” He wouldn’t tell her that he’d already committed his whole career in exchange for this favor. Not until she’d decided, anyway. It would put pressure on her to agree to it, and he wanted her to make her choice freely. “There’d be a nanny provided by Father to take care of Louis so we’d have time for school and . . . well, fighting Hawk Moth, but he doesn’t know that part, obviously. Since it’s just the two of us, there’s room for others, too. Maybe we could get some of our other friends to live there with us. And . . . Nathalie asked to live there, too.”

“Nathalie?” Marinette asked in surprise.

“Nominally, it’s to keep me on schedule and coordinate things for me, and of course my father would keep tabs on me through her. But I think it would be good to have an adult there, if we’re living on our own. One who isn’t one of our parents. Someone to sort of . . . teach us how to be adults before we have to really be on our own. And I know Nathalie seems strict, but she does have some softness underneath. She’s a good person.”

Marinette’s expression had grown soft with sympathy. “So, she and your father aren’t . . . ”

He shook his head. “I’m pretty sure she loves him, but I guess he’s not interested, even with their baby coming. I don’t know why, but there’s a lot I don’t understand about Father. So she and her baby—my little brother—would live with us, too. If that’s okay.”

To his surprise, Marinette smiled at that. “I think it would be nice for Louis to have someone his own age to play and learn with.” She giggled. “Though it’s funny that it’ll be his uncle.”

“So, you’re . . . are you okay with this?” Adrien asked. “The whole house plan? Even though I didn’t talk to you enough about it first?”

Marinette thought about it, then said, “Yes. It does make sense. There won’t be room in my house for all of us, especially after my sister arrives. So I don’t see any reason not to live in the same house. Although . . . ” She fidgeted and blushed a little. “How many bedrooms are there?”

He felt heat rise in his own face. “A lot. I don’t—I don’t know when you want to get married, but I figured, until we’re ready to do that, we could have, like, a boys’ room and a girls’ room. Like a dorm house, sort of.”

Marinette visibly relaxed so much, he was relieved that he’d already thought of an answer to that question. “Good. Yeah, that sounds good,” she said. “I mean, I definitely want to marry you. But we can maybe wait a couple years? If we’re living together with Louis, then that’s the main thing, right? We don’t have to get married until we want to . . . you know, be completely married. And I . . . honestly, after everything, I don’t think I’m going to be ready for that for a while. Not mentally, and not . . . well, as much as I’m thrilled to have Louis, I don’t want to do anything that has even the slightest chance of leading to that again until a lot later when we’re a lot more prepared for it.”

Adrien nodded, his face flaming at the topic of conversation, which was probably one of many good signs that he wasn’t ready for anything like that any time soon either. Regardless of what certain aspects of his body might have tried to tell him he wanted at certain points in recent months. “I completely agree, Marinette. Completely. I love you, and I . . . I do want to get there with you at some point, and I do want more kids, but I’d like to take things nice and slow for a while. We got thrown into so much, so fast, against our will . . . . We need to take things at our own pace from now on.”

With an expression of relief and appreciation, Marinette took his hand. “We’re okay where we’re at, then? Hand-holding, cuddling, maybe . . . ” She ducked her head. “ . . . a little more kissing?”

He nodded eagerly. “All that, yes. I’m a huge fan of the cuddling, especially. That’s still . . . considered platonic, right? Like, we can do it with other people if we want?”

“You know you don’t need permission from me to cuddle with Ladybug, right?”

He grinned. “I know. But I did kinda like the group cuddling.” Suddenly, saying that out loud was kind of humiliating. A guy shouldn’t say that kind of thing, right?

But she didn’t tease him about it at all. “Me, too. So, that’s a go on the cuddling.”

“Good to know.”

She leaned over and kissed him softly on the corner of his mouth, like she wasn’t sure whether to go for a cheek kiss or a real kiss. It was tempting to turn his head to catch her mouth with his, but he’d already gotten a real kiss, so he enjoyed this for what it was. He didn’t want her thinking he’d try to escalate any move she made, especially after what they’d just agreed on.

A rather irritating voice interrupted the moment. “Ew, are you two still going at it?”

Marinette sat back, and they both looked to where Plagg was flying in from the window toward them, carrying Adrien’s phone.

“Plagg!” Marinette cried. “Did you find Tikki?”

“Yes and no,” Plagg said. He dropped the phone on the blanket over Adrien’s lap.

Adrien carefully passed Louis to Marinette and picked up the phone. “What do you mean by that?”

Plagg pointed at the phone. “You’ve got a message.”

Unlocking the screen, Adrien checked his texts. “It’s from Luka. It says, ‘Marinette’s little friend is with me, so tell her not to worry.’ ”

Marinette let out a whoosh of breath. “Oh, thank God. Wait a second. Luka?”

“Luka knows our identities,” Adrien reminded her. “Remember? He found out when we fought Kwamibuster.”

“Oh, right,” Marinette said. “I can’t believe I forgot that. There are so many things in my head right now. And if he sent you that text, then he must know that you found out about me.”

“I guess we weren’t as alone on that sidewalk as I thought. If he saw you go into labor, then he’s probably worried about you. I’d better call him to let him know you’re okay.”

Marinette smiled at him, and the sight of her looking at him like that with their baby in his arms was too much for him. He wrapped them both in a quick, playful hug, which got a squeak out of Marinette. When he let them go, she asked, “No hard feelings toward Luka?”

“Hard feelings? Of course not! I mean, sure, he could have stolen you away from me before I even realized I wanted you, but this Little Bun made sure that didn’t happen.” Adrien stroked his son’s hair and kissed his head. “Didn’t you, Louis? Who’s Daddy’s little guard baby, driving all those icky other men away?”

Marinette snorted. “You are such a weirdo.”

He winked at her. “Yeah, but you don’t get flustered around me when I’m being a weirdo.”

“That’s because the weirdo part of you is the Cat Noir part.”

“Maybe you don’t know Adrien as well as you think you do. I told you about my action figures of us, right?”

She giggled. “You’re right. I guess I have a lot to learn.”

“No rush, Bugaboo. We’ve got the rest of our lives.” He darted in to kiss her cheek, then got out of the bed. Just as he was pulling up Luka’s number, a knock came from the door, and Plagg darted into cover before Dr. Sienne entered.

“How is everyone doing?” she asked.

“Good,” Marinette said.

Dr. Sienne looked Adrien up and down. “I see you changed.”

Belatedly, he realized the doctor had left Marinette in here with Cat Noir, not Adrien. But he was fairly positive she’d figured out who he was as soon as she’d seen him with Marinette. “Ah, yeah, about that,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Before he could get any further, Dr. Sienne held up her hands. “Only four of us saw Cat Noir in here, and nothing’s getting out about it.”

“You promise you won’t tell?” Marinette asked.

Dr. Sienne smiled at her reassuringly. “We won’t tell. About either of you, Ladybug.”

Marinette winced.

“Even if you weren’t covered by doctor-patient confidentiality, which you are,” Dr. Sienne went on, “we all appreciate what you do for the city too much to risk giving Hawk Moth an edge against you. Each of us knows someone personally who’s been akumatized, so we’re all personally very grateful to you. It’s amazing what you two kids have taken on, so I guess it’s no wonder that you’re handling this baby situation so well. Speaking of which, have you tried nursing him?”

Apparently, that was the end of the secret identity conversation. They’d given their word not to tell, and while it still wouldn’t stop Hawk Moth from finding out if he akumatized one of them and then asked them directly, Adrien had no reason to disbelieve them, so at least it shouldn’t show up on the internet or something.

Marinette looked a little panicked at the doctor’s question, though. “No. Should I have? How do I do that?”

“Lie back, and I’ll show you,” said Dr. Sienne.

Marinette shot a panicked look at Adrien as color rose to her cheeks.

“Ah, right! I’ll go over here and call Luka!” He hurried to the far wall, where the window was. They would need to figure out how they wanted to handle the nursing thing, and Marinette would need to find out how comfortable she was with people watching her, but for now, she needed privacy. He dialed Luka and held the phone to his ear. Glancing up, Adrien realized he could see a reflection of the room behind him in the glass, so he swiftly turned, hugging the wall, and found another place to stand where he might not catch a reflection of something Marinette didn’t want him to see.

Luka picked up right away, even though it wasn’t quite three-thirty a.m. “How is she?”

“She’s great,” Adrien said. “The baby’s great.”

“It’s already over?” Luka asked with surprise.

“Yeah, it kinda surprised all of us. By the way, why didn’t you ever tell me you rejected her a long time ago? You had to know I thought she was seeing you, right?”

There was silence on the other end of the line until Luka finally said in a tired voice, “I did, Adrien. I tried. It didn’t go well.”

Adrien frowned. “You did? You mean”—he lowered his voice to a whisper—“with Second Chance?”

“Yeah. There was no good way to tell you. Any of it. You guys just had to work it through on your own. And it sounds like you did, right?”

Adrien smiled. “Right.”

“I’m glad. You’re good for each other, Adrien. I’m very happy for you both.”

“Thank you, Luka,” Adrien said, meaning it. “I don’t know if I could have been happy for you, if you’d gotten to her first.”

“No one’s perfect.”

Adrien chuckled. “Come to the hospital. Marinette would like to see her little friend, and I’m sure she’d like to see you, too. And not just as a friend. I have a feeling we might have some . . . work-related things to discuss.”

“I’m on my way.”


	81. Chapter 81

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some chapters are just really hard to break into smaller bites.

Teeth gritted and bared in a grimace, Marinette stared down at her baby and thought, _There’s something wrong with me. There’s definitely something wrong with me. I’m a horrible mother. Feeding my baby should not creep me out._

But it did.

Dr. Sienne had helped her get Louis into position and latched onto a nipple, and he was softly sucking away. It didn’t hurt, like Marinette was afraid it would. She’d already decided that she wanted to breastfeed him, though she wasn’t sure for how many months, because she’d read that it was good for the baby’s health. And she wanted to stand by that decision.

She just needed to figure out why the feel of his tiny mouth on her breast made her skin crawl, and why the sight of it made her so uncomfortable.

Dr. Sienne had pulled up a stool and was sitting beside the bed, watching to see how things went. Marinette had mostly grown used to Dr. Sienne—and she was both a woman and a doctor, on top of being someone familiar—so having her watch wasn’t the problem. Adrien was across the room, standing at the kitchenette and pretending to be doing something, but she knew he was only waiting for permission to come back. So the problem wasn’t nervousness about him being around, either.

“Marinette?” Dr. Sienne asked softly. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

Clearly, Marinette wasn’t doing a good job of hiding her emotions. To accompany the grimace, tears began to pool in her eyes.

“I know you said you planned to breastfeed him,” Dr. Sienne said, “but there are other options if you’re uncomfortable. There’s formula, though breast milk is best. You could also pump and feed him from a bottle. Most women who breastfeed have to do some amount of that anyway.”

“What’s wrong with me?” Marinette whispered.

“Nothing’s wrong with you,” Dr. Sienne told her. “I’ve actually seen several girls your age who’ve given birth already because of Fairy Grandmother who’ve had the same issue. Even some adult women. Particularly those who have never . . . been with a man other than what happened during that attack. Normally, by the time a woman is breastfeeding a baby, she’s had . . . other attention given to her breasts by another person, and it was a positive experience. I’m not a psychologist, but I think there may be a sort of . . . mental disconnect or shock that you’re not psychologically ready for, especially when you’re so young and motherhood came on you so suddenly.”

Marinette pressed her lips together, trying to rein in the tears. “That makes sense.” It helped to know she wasn’t alone and that there could be a reasonable explanation for what she was feeling. “So, you don’t think I’ll still be like this if I have another baby when I’m older?”

“I couldn’t say for sure, but I would be optimistic about it. I can refer you to a psychologist to talk about this if you’d like, if you’re not already seeing someone. A lactation consultant could be helpful, too.”

Marinette nodded. “Don’t tell Adrien,” she pleaded. “He’ll find a way to blame himself, even though it’s not his fault.”

“I won’t tell him or anyone else anything you don’t want me to. Would you like someone to come in and get you set up with the pump?”

Marinette nodded again, feeling like a total failure as a mom, and she’d only just started. She shifted Louis in her arms, pulling him away from her breast. He complained about it a little, so she held him against her upper chest and cooed to him. “Shh. I’m sorry, baby. I’m sorry.” Soon, he settled down. Hopefully that meant he’d had enough to eat for now and wouldn’t be hungry again until she could get some milk in a bottle for him.

Dr. Sienne left the room, and the female nurse who’d assisted with Louis’s delivery came in.

“Would you like to put your nightgown back on?” asked the nurse.

“Can I?”

The nurse nodded. “It’s loose enough that we can work around it if we need to.”

So the nurse helped Marinette to change out of her hospital gown and into her nightgown. From over by the kitchenette, Adrien stood still as a statue, patiently waiting to be called back. Once she was in her own clothes, Marinette felt a little more comfortable. She settled back into the bed and sat with Louis held against her chest. “Adrien, you can come back.”

He spun eagerly and hurried over. By the flick of his gaze, she could tell he noticed that she’d changed clothes, but he didn’t comment on it. “How’d it go?”

The sense of failure swept over Marinette again, and she started crying.

“Whoa, whoa! What happened?”

“I didn’t like it,” she bawled. “It felt weird.” She couldn’t get into details of why, but she wasn’t in any emotional state to hide the problem entirely.

She expected him to be disappointed or maybe tell her to keep trying until it felt normal. Instead, he slid into the bed beside her and wrapped her up in his arms, saying gently, “It’s okay. I’m sure I’d find it weird, too. We can figure something else out. He’s not gonna starve.”

Marinette turned her head and cried softly into his t-shirt. “Thank you.”

The nurse said, “She can pump the milk and bottle feed him. I was about to get her set up to do it now.”

“Can it wait?” Adrien asked. “A friend’s coming over who we’d both really like to see right away.”

“Sure,” said the nurse. “If you need anything, press the call button.”

When they were alone, Adrien put a finger under Marinette’s chin to lift her face. “It’s gonna be fine, Marinette. Can you stop crying? If you’re crying when Luka and Tikki get here, I might get beat up.”

That made her smile. She wiped her face with the corner of the blanket to dry the tears. “You’re too good for me, Adrien.”

“Hey, now,” he protested. “I’m the only one of us who gets to make bad jokes. Cat’s prerogative.”

She sat beside him on the bed, shoulder to shoulder, as she held their son. Plagg flew over to hover in front of them. “So, this is the kitten, huh?”

“Yep!” Adrien said. “Plagg, meet Louis.”

Marinette shifted her hold on Louis so that Plagg could see him. The kwami floated down near her baby’s face, observing but not touching. “I don’t get it,” he said.

“What do you mean?” Marinette asked.

“Babies!” Plagg said, as if that explained things. “They can’t hold a conversation, they’re noisy, they’re too small to use a Miraculous, and people get upset if you taste them!”

Marinette and Adrien stared at the kwami in shock.

“What?” Plagg asked, folding his arms. “Cat’s prerogative.”

Without taking his eyes off Plagg, Adrien leaned closer to Marinette and said, “Is this what it’s like for you when I do it?”

“Depends on the day,” Marinette answered.

Two soft knocks came from the door.

Marinette called out, “Come in!”

As soon as the door cracked open, a red blur shot toward her. Tikki slammed herself against Marinette’s cheek, glomping on with an affectionate squeal.

Marinette laughed and cuddled Tikki with one hand. “Hi, Tikki. I’m happy to see you, too. I’m so sorry we left you behind.”

Tikki peeled herself away from Marinette and floated in front of her, near Plagg. “Don’t even think of it anymore, Marinette. You needed to take care of yourself and your baby. Besides, Luka was there to help me out.”

The boy himself strode across the room, his hands in his pockets and a small smile on his face. “Hi, Marinette.”

“Luka.” She beamed at him. “Thank you for taking care of Tikki.”

“What are friends for?”

Tikki squealed in delight as she spotted Louis. “Your baby’s here!”

Louis turned his face toward her, his eyes cracking open.

Tikki carefully reached out to touch him lightly on the cheek. “Congratulations, Marinette! And Adrien!”

“Thank you, Tikki,” Marinette said. “His name’s Louis.”

Perhaps emboldened by having Tikki here, Plagg came closer, hovering right next to Tikki. “Hi there, kitten,” he told Louis.

Almost as if he could tell he was being addressed, Louis reached a grasping hand toward Plagg, who darted back to hide behind Tikki.

She laughed. “He can’t hurt us, Plagg. He’s just a baby.” Tikki moved in close enough for Louis to reach and avoided being grabbed while gently touching his fingers. “I’m pleased to meet you, Louis. You’re a very lucky little boy, to have such wonderful parents.”

Marinette blushed in pleasure at the compliment. It was so sweet to see Tikki with her son, and what a relief that Louis didn’t find the kwamis frightening.

Luka pulled up a chair beside the bed. As he sat, he swung his guitar over his shoulder and held it, ready to play. “Congratulations, Marinette. Adrien. I’m so happy you two finally found each other.”

“Me, too, Luka,” Marinette said. “And I’m sorry for making you keep our secret for so long.” She didn’t remember asking him to do that, of course, since it had happened in a different timeline, but it had still been her.

He shrugged. “It wasn’t all that long. I was prepared to keep it longer if I had to. Your secrets are always safe with me.”

Marinette angled Louis toward him, and the baby peered at Luka through slitted eyes. “Louis, say hi to Uncle Luka.”

Luka chuckled and gently rubbed Louis’s cheek with one finger. “Hi there, Louis. You’re pretty cute.” He gazed into Louis’s eyes for a few seconds, then his hands went to the strings of his guitar, and he began to play a light, cheerful tune. The sound was warm and hopeful, somehow encapsulating everything Marinette wanted for her son’s future.

While he played, Sass came out and joined the Tikki and Plagg, and the three kwamis frolicked in the air near Louis’s head while he watched them with a focus he hadn’t yet shown anything else.

It was one of those perfect moments that life sometimes offers, and Marinette soaked it in, memorizing every part of it.

When Luka finished playing, Marinette breathed, “That was beautiful.” She wished she could sit here forever like this, but there were matters at hand, and she had too much responsibility on her shoulders. “We need to talk about some things,” she said. “As much as I’m happy that Adrien and I know each other’s identities, I’m afraid of what it might mean.”

“You mean . . . giving up our Miraculouses?” Adrien guessed.

Marinette nodded. “Tikki?”

Her kwami stopped playing and floated where she could see them all easily. “It’s true. Normally, this would mean you’d have to do that. But Plagg and I think the Guardian might be persuaded to let you keep them, if you can take down Hawk Moth soon.”

Adrien sat straighter. “Really? You think so?”

“Maybe,” Tikki emphasized. “But it does pose a great risk. If Hawk Moth were to akumatize one of you now, it would be much easier for him to get the other, and that would mean losing both Miraculouses to him.”

“But he hasn’t akumatized either of us so far,” Adrien pointed out. “So the chances of him doing it soon are low, right?”

Tikki shared a look with Marinette, but Marinette didn’t need the reminder. “That isn’t . . . exactly true,” she said reluctantly. “About neither of us being akumatized before.”

Adrien raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m pretty sure it is.”

“There was . . . another timeline.” She looked at Luka. “Not a short one, so the Snake Miraculous wasn’t involved. But once, Bunnyx—the future holder of the Rabbit Miraculous—showed up and took me to the future, so I could”—her gaze slid to Adrien, tears appearing as that future she’d seen made so much more sense—“save Cat Noir.”

His confusion shifted to fear. “Me?”

“Everything was destroyed,” she explained. The memories were so terrifying, so painful, that she tried to keep it brief. “You were all alone, not Cat Noir but Cat Blanc. You told me that our love had destroyed the world. But you also told me that everything was fine before Hawk Moth found out. You knew who I really was, but I couldn’t risk finding out your identity, so I wasn’t able to get any details about what happened. I don’t know what the trigger was that let him akumatize you.”

“Well, I’m not going to give you up,” Adrien said firmly. “So it sounds like we just have to make sure Hawk Moth doesn’t find out about us.”

“Or,” she said, “we could give up our Miraculouses.”

Neither Adrien nor Luka nor any of the kwamis immediately offered an argument to that, which showed how seriously they were all taking it.

“I don’t want to give them up,” she said. “But we may need to.”

“Can we give it a little more time, Milady?” Adrien asked. “If we can hurry and take down Hawk Moth, then it won’t be a problem. And Bunnyx hasn’t shown up to fix anything recently, so maybe we’ve already passed any points where that future you saw could happen again.”

She wanted so much to hope that was true, and all the reasons that she’d considered before about why they shouldn’t give up their Miraculouses right away were still true. It was still a bad time to break in a new Ladybug and Cat Noir. Besides, they had a team now. It wasn’t just the two of them. “Let’s give it more time,” she agreed. Turning to Luka, she said, “Back then, we didn’t have a team. Now, we have you. I know we’ve come to rely on you a lot, but we’re going to need to do it even more. You’re our fail-safe, Luka. If anything ever happens to get one of us akumatized, you’ll need to be there to stop it. Especially . . . especially if Adrien becomes Cat Blanc again. The power boost that Hawk Moth gave him was . . . ” She shuddered at the memory.

“That bad?” Adrien’s voice was thin. Both he and Plagg wore expressions of fear and worry.

“You broke the moon,” she said quietly.

That hung there for a moment.

Luka nodded solemnly. “I’ll be there, Marinette. I won’t let that happen again.”

“So,” Adrien said, “we’re not giving up our Miraculouses—at least, not yet—and we’re not going to let ourselves get akumatized. Sounds like a plan.”

Another knock sounded from the door. The kwamis hid under the bed.

Thinking it was most likely the nurse checking to see if she was ready to pump, Marinette called, “Come in!”

The door opened, and two people entered.

“Alya! Nino!” Marinette said in surprise. She looked to Adrien, who appeared as surprised as she did, then to Luka.

He shrugged. “They made me promise to call them as soon as I found out.”

As soon as Alya spotted the baby, she squealed. “Marinette, girl!” She tried to hurry across the room as fast as she could, but she was so heavily pregnant that it wasn’t very fast.

When it became clear that Alya was likely to crush Marinette in a hug as soon as she reached her, Marinette passed Louis to Adrien for safekeeping. Sure enough, the next moment, Alya wedged herself into the space between Luka and the bed and leaned over to give Marinette a firm hug—or tried to. Although the handrails on the sides of the bed had been moved out of the way, Alya’s huge stomach prevented her from leaning as far as she needed to for a proper hug, so Marinette met her half-way.

“How are you feeling, girl?” Alya asked. “Was it awful? Are you okay?”

“It was, but I’m doing all right now,” Marinette answered.

Alya pulled back, and she zeroed in on the baby. “There he is! Oh, he’s so cute! What’s his name?”

“Louis,” Marinette said.

“Louis Agreste,” Adrien clarified, looking like the very definition of the cat that got the cream.

Alya’s eyes narrowed instantly, shifting between Adrien and Marinette several times before suddenly widening. “You found each other out.”

Beside her, Nino barked a laugh. “About time, dudes.”

Marinette internally panicked. They couldn’t mean what it sounded like they meant. “What? Wha—found what? Out each other?”

Nino held a fist toward Luka to pound. “I was wondering, when you called. Not that a baby’s not a good enough reason on its own.”

Luka returned the fist bump.

“Luka!” Marinette gasped.

“He didn’t tell us,” Alya assured her. She moved around to Adrien’s side of the bed, taking Nino with her.

Adrien was gaping at them, too. “You guys knew about our secret identities? For how long?”

“Adrien!” Marinette hissed. They hadn’t actually made it totally clear what they were talking about yet, and Adrien didn’t know they were already in the know about Miraculous stuff.

“What?” he asked defensively. “I already know theirs.” Whatever expression Marinette made at that, it caused Adrien to laugh. “You start giving out Miraculouses to everyone in our friends group, and I’m not supposed to notice? I’ve seen the Turtle Miraculous before, on Master Fu”—Marinette saw Nino’s eyebrows go up at that, but Adrien didn’t notice, since he was facing her instead of him—“so I recognized it when Nino started wearing it, and Carapace said he was with Rena Rouge, which meant Alya was her.”

“I don’t know,” Nino broke in, “I could have had a side piece.”

Adrien laughed at the ludicrousness of the idea. “No, you couldn’t.”

Alya elbowed her fiancé, making him instantly reject his joke, judging by the intensity of his wince.

Marinette eyed Adrien suspiciously, wondering how much he knew. “Everyone in our friends group?”

“Well, not everyone. Just Alya, Nino, Luka, Max, Kim, Chloe, and Kagami. Oh, and future Alix, though you haven’t given hers to her yet.”

Marinette slapped a hand over her face. He knew about everyone. Technically, Chloe was _his_ friend but not hers, and Marinette hadn’t given the Bee Miraculous to her originally, but she had given it to her later, so Marinette didn’t argue the detail.

Adrien nudged her with his shoulder. “I thought you were on that list, too, so I guess you were clever enough to hide your real identity from me.”

“What’s that mean?” Alya asked.

There wasn’t any reason not to tell them now, so Marinette briefly explained about the Multimouse incident, how she’d used the Mouse Miraculous to make copies of herself, then had those copies combine their Miraculouses with the Fox, Ladybug, and Black Cat Miraculouses.

Alya was in awe. “You used all those Miraculouses at once? That’s amazing, girl!”

Marinette shrugged. “I just did what I had to. And I didn’t use them for that long.”

Tikki came out from under the bed, followed by the other kwamis. “It really was amazing, Marinette.”

Wayzz emerged from Nino’s bag. “Indeed, he said. Using two Miraculouses at once is an impressive feat and a challenge. Using more than that, and nearly anyone risks losing a grip on their sanity. Yet you managed it without any visible effort or strain, on top of wearing the other Miraculouses, even if they weren’t active. I don’t believe any other Miraculous holder has ever managed as much without suffering drastic consequences.”

Marinette stared at Wayzz. “Really? But . . . it didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. It was just what I had to do.”

“I told you, Marinette,” Luka said. “You’re amazing.”

Her other friends nodded in agreement.

Adrien kissed her cheek and whispered, “Best Ladybug ever.”

Alya squealed, took out her phone, and snapped a photo before Marinette even had time to react. Adrien raised Louis higher, leaned closer to Marinette, and smiled for the camera.

After Alya took a few more shots, she put her phone away and held out her arms. “Can I hold him?”

Adrien carefully passed him over, and Alya cradled Louis against her chest, cooing at him.

Nino stroked Louis’s cheek softly and joked, “Hey, there’s my future son-in-law.”

Marinette laughed. Adrien . . . grinned a little too eagerly at the idea.

He caught her looking at him. “Well, it _would_ be cool,” he protested, defending himself from the warning he already knew she was thinking. “Obviously, I’m not going to pressure him, but if our son and their daughter just happen to like each other that way, you can’t say you wouldn’t be excited about it.”

Marinette’s imagination took over: the excited look on Louis’s face as he told them the news, the cake his grandparents would bake for the wedding, the matching dress and tux that Marinette would design, Nino walking his daughter down the aisle—

 _No, stop_ , Marinette thought. _Fantasize about your wedding first, then we can worry about Louis’s._ “Of course not,” she told Adrien. “But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Again.”

Alya caught some meaning in their exchange. “Are we missing something?”

Adrien looked sheepish. “I sort of . . . bought a house without exactly consulting Marinette about it.”

Alya snorted. Nino laughed. Luka shook his head.

“He had good intentions.” Marinette felt the need to come to Adrien’s defense. “He was trying to provide for us. But it did get a little out of hand.”

Under the stares of their three friends, Adrien confessed his whole scheme, much to their amusement. “So, Marinette’s agreed to live there with me, and the nanny and Nathalie will be there, but we’ve still got room for like four more people.”

Remembering the one time they _had_ talked about it and what she’d thought he meant, Marinette blurted out, “Hey, Alya! Nino! Do you want to live there with us?”

Adrien was immediately on board with this idea. “Yeah! Of course! That would be awesome!”

Alya and Nino exchanged surprised looks, then Alya handed Louis back to Adrien, and she and Nino went to another corner of the room to whisper together.

“Did I spring that on them too quickly?” Marinette asked.

“At least you didn’t plan for them to move in without even asking them,” Adrien said. He looked past her to Luka, who’d been pretty quiet through the house explanation. “You know, Luka, I haven’t asked Marinette about it, but as far as I’m concerned, you’re still welcome, even if things aren’t going exactly as I’d thought they would. You’re a really good friend to both of us.”

Luka chuckled and started strumming idly on his guitar. “Thanks, Adrien. I appreciate that. In some ways, I’m sure I’d enjoy it. But as much as I’m happy for you two, I’m not sure I could really handle having a front-row seat.”

Part of Marinette wanted to argue, but she understood how he felt, and things probably would be a little awkward if he were living there. “You know you’ll always be welcome to visit, though, right?”

He gave her a soft smile, his tune lifting into a lighter melody. “Thanks. Anyway, you should probably use the extra space for another couple with a kid. Free nanny care is huge, not to mention free housing. You could really be a blessing to someone who needs it.”

 _Someone who needs it_ , she thought, one other pair immediately coming to mind. But before she could say anything about it, Alya and Nino came back over.

“So, Nino and I have talked it over,” Alya said.

“And?” Adrien asked. “What do you say?”

Nino held his arms out wide. “We say, ‘Hey, roomies!’ ”

Adrien laughed and high-fived Nino, then Alya and Marinette leaned across Adrien to hug each other.

“This is gonna be awesome!” Adrien cried.

There was a couch close enough to Adrien’s side of the bed for conversation, so Alya and Nino settled in. Luka had a hard time seeing over the bed to them, then, so he came around and sat with them on the couch. The four kwamis were off doing their own thing, zipping around the room, probably excited because it was rare that so many of them got to hang out together.

“We were planning on getting married as soon as we could,” Alya said, “but that was mostly so we could get a home together and raise our daughter without things being weird. But if we’re living in your house, that’s a different issue.”

“What we’re saying,” said Nino, “is that we’re totally fine with slowing things down and having a long engagement, in solidarity with our BFFs. It would be awkward if we were married and you guys weren’t, so we’re cool with keeping pace with our buds.”

“Neither of us were super eager to speed things up in, uh, certain areas, anyway,” Alya said.

Marinette decided to talk to her about those details later, when there weren’t boys around. Maybe Alya felt the same way she did about some of that stuff, even though she’d been with Nino for a while already. They all were still pretty young.

“You didn’t have to do that, guys,” Adrien said. “But . . . I do appreciate it. I’m really looking forward to this. More than I can say, really. I’ve been mostly alone for so long. Being at Marinette’s has been so much fun, I hated the fact that it would have to end. But now it doesn’t! Now I get to live with her _and_ two of my other close friends!”

“Aww,” Alya said, hugging Nino’s arm, “he’s like a little orphan boy getting adopted.”

Adrien blushed. “I just really like having friends around.”

“Then how about two more?” Marinette said.

“More?” he asked.

“We still have some room, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So, I was thinking—”

Alya interrupted. “Alix and Nathaniel, right?”

Marinette smiled. Adrien beamed like a spotlight.

“For sure,” said Nino. “If anyone could use a free nanny, it’s those two.”

“And they wouldn’t have to split up their twins!” said Adrien. He hugged Marinette tight with one arm. “You always have the best ideas, Milady.”

“Well, it was kind of obvious,” she said demurely.

Adrien turned toward their friends on the couch. “So, uh, about the secret identity thing. How long did you know?”

“Almost three months,” said Alya.

“What?!” Marinette gasped. “And you never said anything?”

Nino shrugged. “Luka told us not to.”

“Hey, who’s team leader around here?” she pouted.

Nino jumped like he might actually be in trouble. “Uh, so you know how a ship’s doctor can override the captain in medical issues? I figured it was kind of like that. Is it not?”

Even though it was humiliating to think of her friends knowing about her for that long and never telling her, Marinette had to admit he had a point. The time-travel Miraculouses did kind of make their holders exceptions to the usual order of things. (She hesitated to think of it as a chain of command, since even being team leader was something she did out of necessity than because she really thought she was in any way a better hero than her friends.) “No, I guess it is,” she admitted.

Adrien laughed nervously. “All that time, huh? How was our acting?”

“Unbelievably terrible,” said Nino.

Alya nodded in agreement. “I’m guessing the only reason you didn’t figure each other out is because you were each too busy trying to hide your own secret.”

Marinette slumped against Adrien’s side. “When I think of all the time we wasted trying to make up excuses to get away when we could have been helping each other—”

A memory crossed her mind like a child running into the road, causing her thought process to momentarily come to a screeching halt. It wasn’t a long memory, maybe half a minute, but it replayed over and over again in her brain at hyper-speed, the implications of what had happened then combined with what she knew now building and building until she was literally shaking with the emotional strain.

“Marinette?” Adrien asked, sounding worried. “Marinette, are you okay? What’s going on? Do you need the nurse?” He waved Nino over and passed Louis to him, then turned to grip Marinette by the arms. “Marinette, talk to me.” He felt her head with the inside of his wrist.

“Not sick,” she croaked before someone called in the nurse. She was worrying her friends, and she needed to pull herself together. With an effort of will, she pushed down enough of the emotion so that she could look into Adrien’s eyes. Her hands fisted in his shirt, and her shaking calmed down, though tears began to flow. “It’s all my fault.”

“What is, Marinette?” Adrien asked, not looking excessively reassured by her attempts to calm down, but at least he didn’t call in the nurse. “What’s your fault?”

“Everything.” Her voice was hoarse and raspy. It was hard to get the words out through her tightened throat. “Babies. Fairy Grandmother.”

Adrien wrapped her in his arms. “We’ve been over this, remember? No one blames you. The gas just acted too quickly for you to act. It was too fast for me, too—” His voice cut off suddenly, and his body stiffened.

 _He sees it, too_ , she thought. “We had time,” she said. “We could have gotten out. We could have stopped it. Not from starting, but at least from going on as long as it did.”

Pressed tight against him, she heard him swallow. “It . . . it’s fine, Marinette. We didn’t know.”

Alya’s voice was sharp, but Marinette could hear the thick concern in her words. “Girl, you’re not trying to take the blame for this again, are you? No one blames Ladybug or Cat Noir for what happened.”

“Yeah, dudes,” agreed Nino. “Everyone gets it. You were caught before being able to transform. Yeah, they don’t know you actually were caught together, but I don’t see how that changes anything.”

“It does. It changes everything.” Marinette pushed away from Adrien enough to look at her friends, new tears spilling from her eyes at her failure to have helped them. “We wasted time. We could have transformed, but we wasted time.”

Alya and Nino looked at her in confusion, but it was hard for her to come up with the right words she needed.

“I think I know what she means,” said Adrien, coming to her rescue. “After we spotted the gas, I tried to get in the bathroom so I could transform and search for the villain. But I ran into Marinette in the doorway. I . . . I didn’t understand why she was in such a hurry to get into the bathroom, too, but we wasted the few seconds we had arguing politely about who needed to go to the bathroom more.”

Their eyes widened with realization.

Marinette covered her face with her hands. “We wouldn’t have done that if we knew each other’s identities then. We could have gotten out and stopped her, without getting caught in the gas, before anyone else got caught by it. We failed because of a rule _I_ insisted on.”

The silence that met that statement said all she needed to know about her friends’ agreement with her choice to take the blame this time. It _had_ been her fault, and they all knew it.

“I’m so sorry,” she sobbed.

Adrien hugged her and rubbed her back. “You’ve always done what you thought was right at the time,” he said.

That wasn’t true, but now wasn’t the time to deflect with stories of stolen phones or cookie booby traps. She could tell him all the times she’d done things she knew were wrong at the time, but the fact was that he was right about this particular case. She’d always believed that keeping their identities secret was crucial and right, and that it would keep everyone safer. But it hadn’t worked out that way in the end. Keeping their identities had led to failure, and that failure had resulted in life-changing ramifications for not only them and their friends, but for thousands of people throughout Paris.

Adrien nudged her ear with his nose and said, “I don’t blame you, Milady.”

“I should have trusted you more,” she cried, clinging to him.

“You did what you thought was best. You’re not perfect, and sometimes you make mistakes. I already knew that, and I love you anyway.”

“You’re not mad?”

“It may have turned out to be a mistake, but I got you because of it, and Louis. How could I be mad about that?”

“We’re not mad either, Marinette,” Alya said.

Marinette raised her head to see Alya and Nino wearing matching determined expressions. Nino nodded. “Anyway, you suffered along with everyone else, so if it was a mistake, you’ve already paid for it.”

“When you can’t go back and fix your mistakes,” Luka said softly, “all you can do is learn from the experience and decide how to go forward.”

As Marinette considered his words, her crying subsided. She sucked in a deep breath and wiped her eyes. “You’re right. Holding so strictly to the rule about secret identities may have been a mistake once, but it doesn’t need to be again. And most of the secrets are already out, anyway. All that’s left is letting the rest of the team know about Adrien and me.”

Adrien gave her a surprised look. “Is that what you’re planning to do?”

She nodded firmly. “We still need the team, and the team needs to be unified. While there aren’t zero risks in telling the others, this time I’d rather err on the side of openness and trust among us.”

The kwamis zoomed over from wherever they’d been chatting. “Are you sure about this?” Tikki asked, a bit panicked.

“I am, Tikki.”

Tikki scowled but didn’t argue. Marinette hoped that meant she could at least see the reasons in favor of doing it, even if she didn’t agree.

“Finally!” said Plagg. “I always thought Sugar Cube was too much of a stickler for the rules.”

“The rules are there for a reason,” Wayzz said sternly. He asked Marinette, “You are at least going to discuss this with the Guardian, aren’t you?”

“Uh, yeah, at some point,” Marinette said, wanting to avoid a conflict. It wasn’t that she distrusted Master Fu, but his insistence had been a large part of why she’d kept their identities secret. She didn’t know if he’d ever actually been an active hero himself or if he’d ever worked with a team, but she wasn’t sure that his way of doing things was the correct way anymore. She didn’t want to outright defy him, but she didn’t think he’d approve of the choice she was making.

“This Ladybug is wise,” Sass said to Wayzz. “I believe if she thinks this is the right choice, then it very likely is.”

“Thank you, Sass,” Marinette said. Even if only some of the kwamis were fully on-board with this plan, it sounded like they’d at least all go along with it.

“We’re with you, Ladynette,” Nino said, giving her a wink when she raised an eyebrow at the nickname.

“One hundred percent, girl,” said Alya, moving a hand to her belly. “By the way, once I get this little girl out of here, do you think you could use a fox on the team?”

Marinette smirked at her. “We may be able to find some room.”

“Yeah!” Alya cheered, and Nino high-fived her.

“For what it’s worth,” offered Luka, “I think this is the right choice, too.”

Marinette looked to Adrien. “What do you think, partner?”

Adrien took her hand, raised it to his lips, and kissed her fingers. “I think you’re brilliant and beautiful. I think I’m the luckiest guy in the world.” He laughed at her mock glare and got to the point. “And I’ve been hoping you’d make that decision ever since I figured out who the others are. I think we’ll work better as a team when we all know how close we already are. And I think it’s gonna be a lot more fun this way.”

Marinette made a lot of mistakes. She really hoped this wouldn’t be another one, but at least this time, she had the support of her friends. “All right, then. I’ll tell them. But not right now.” She checked the clock on the wall. It was after four a.m. “Mom and Dad should be awake. I’d better call them and tell them the news.”

“And I’d better call Father,” Adrien said.

Their friends got up, and Nino handed Louis back to Marinette.

“Do you want us to tell the class what happened?” Alya asked.

“I guess you’d better,” Marinette answered. “But leave the details for us when we get back.”

“Will do.” Alya took Nino’s hand as they headed for the door. “Let’s stop in at Alix’s room and see if she’s awake.” Over her shoulder, she asked, “Want us to tell her about the house if she is?”

“Go ahead,” answered Adrien, “but tell her to keep it between us for now.”

Luka was lingering by the bed. Once Nino and Alya were out of the room, he leaned down to kiss Marinette’s cheek. “Congratulations again, Marinette.”

“Th-thanks, Luka.” She blushed and looked away from him, only to find Adrien pouting. _He’s jealous!_ she thought, irrationally happy about it.

Luka held out a hand to Adrien. “Take care of her, Adrien.” When Adrien took his hand to shake it, Luka leaned over and added softly, “I’ll be watching.”

For some reason, the warning made Adrien smile. “You’re a good friend, Luka.”

Luka smiled and started to leave, then hesitated. “Just so you know, during that time when I used Second Chance to try to tell Adrien we weren’t dating—”

“When you _what_?!” Marinette asked.

Luka continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “I asked you to kiss me, to see his reaction. And you did.”

“O-oh.” Marinette didn’t really know what to think of that. It was weird to think that Luka had the memory of kissing her, but she didn’t have any memory of it herself.

Adrien got over his own surprise quickly enough to whisper to her, “See? Doesn’t feel great, does it?” There was no heat in his words, but the fact that he said it at all meant he still held some hurt from having to find out about the Dark Cupid kiss on live TV. To soften the harshness of his comment, Adrien wrapped his arm around her and stroked her arm.

“How did he react?” Marinette asked.

Luka smiled ruefully. “He was happy.”

Adrien winced. Marinette’s heart sank.

“That’s how I knew he hadn’t realized how much he loved you yet,” Luka explained. “Anyway, it seemed like something you should know. I did it with good intentions, but . . . maybe you’d think I was hiding it or lying to you if you found out later.”

“I understand, Luka,” she said. “Thank you for telling me. I know I can always trust you.”

Luka nodded and left.

“I can’t believe how blind I was for so long,” Adrien murmured. “I’m so sorry, Marinette.”

“We were both blind,” she said, cupping his face in her hand. “I can’t blame you for not recognizing me without also blaming myself for not recognizing you. We were both so hung up on each other, we didn’t see what was right in front of us.” She chuckled—because it was funny, when she thought about it.

Adrien laughed, too. Pressing his forehead to hers, he said, “We’re some match, aren’t we, Milady?”

“Yep,” she said. “We definitely deserve each other, Kitty.”

“Darn right.” He kissed her softly on the mouth. Then he bent to kiss Louis on the top of the head. “I’d better call Father.”

Marinette reached for her phone, only to realize she still didn’t have it. “Maybe you should call my parents, too? I should really try that pumping thing before more people show up.”

A bit of red came to his cheeks, but he didn’t acknowledge it. “Sure. What should I tell them?”

 _Oh, goody. Lame excuse time._ “Um, that I was sleepwalking?”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I guess that’ll have to work. Do you want me to stay in the room or leave while you’re, um, pumping?”

“Stay, but . . . don’t look.”

“I’ll see if they can set up a screen.” He kissed her head and got up from the bed.

She grabbed his hand. “Adrien? I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about kissing you when we were fighting Dark Cupid. It . . . was my first kiss. I didn’t think of it that way at the time, but I do now, and I’m glad it was you.”

He smiled and squeezed her hand. “Me, too, Marinette. Even though I can’t really remember either of my firsts, I’m glad they were both with you.” His sweet smile morphed into a flirty grin that was pure Cat Noir. “And in case it wasn’t already obvious, you’ve got dibs on seconds, too.”

Then he walked away, leaving a blushing, incoherent mess behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay until the next chapter. This week's been kind of weird. Hopefully next chapter up on Friday.


	82. Chapter 82

Ringing from the phone on Gabriel’s nightstand woke him from a sound sleep. Growling, he rolled over, plucked his glasses from their holder on the nightstand, and put them on. Then he picked up the phone and checked the screen to find out what the emergency was. Because surely an emergency was the only explanation for anyone calling him at—he checked the clock—four-seventeen a.m.

_Barely an hour’s sleep_ , he thought ruefully. It was his own fault. He was too old to be staying awake into the small hours of the morning akumatizing people, but he could never seem to help himself when he felt a tempting target.

The phone was still ringing. The call was from Adrien. Which meant it really _was_ an emergency.

That realization sent some energy to Gabriel’s sleep-fogged brain, and he sat up in bed. “Adrien?”

“Father,” Adrien greeted. “Sorry to wake you. I know it’s really early.” He didn’t sound panicked, which was good.

“Is there a problem, son?”

“No, not a problem, but . . . well, Marinette had the baby.”

Gabriel frowned in surprise. He hadn’t heard anything about her going into labor, but he knew sometimes it could happen quickly. “I see. Are they well?”

“Yes, they’re both fine. His name’s Louis.”

Not a name Gabriel would have chosen, but acceptable. “Louis what?”

“Why does it matter?” Adrien asked defensively.

“Humor me.”

Adrien hesitated, and when he answered, the tone of his voice floated somewhere between a boy’s petulance and a man’s pride. “Louis Agreste.”

Gabriel smiled. “Good.” If Adrien insisted on acknowledging the boy as his son publicly, it was better for him to have the Agreste name. Hopefully, this was also a sign that Adrien had seen sense regarding the girl.

“We’re at the hospital, if you’d like to meet your grandson,” Adrien said. “And I’ve got some other things to tell you then, too.”

_That sounds very promising_ , Gabriel thought. “I’ll come by later today. I need to check with Nathalie to see when I’ll have time in my schedule.”

Adrien’s voice cooled. “All right, Father. We’ll be here.” The call ended.

Gabriel put his phone and glasses on the nightstand and lay back in bed, desperate for at least a few more hours’ sleep.

“Good news, Master?” Nooroo’s voice was soft and hopeful.

“I have a grandson,” Gabriel informed him.

“That’s wonderful, Master! I don’t suppose, for the sake of your family, you might consider giving up—”

In the dark and without his glasses, Gabriel couldn’t be sure he was aiming his glare in the right spot, but he did his best. “Be quiet and let me sleep.”

Nooroo bowed and floated away. “Yes, Master.”

_A grandson_ , Gabriel thought as he lay in the dark. _What would Emilie say?_

#

Tom was surprised to hear his phone ring as he was getting ready for the day. He and Sabine stood at the counter in their bathroom—him shaving and her brushing her teeth. His phone was in the bedroom. He set down his razor and went to get his phone, surprised to see a call from Adrien’s number.

“Adrien?” he answered. “Is everything all right up there? You guys need anything?”

“Ah . . . ” Adrien hesitated in a way that made Tom worry. “We’re not actually in Marinette’s room. Or in the house at all.”

Tom frowned and glanced behind him to see Sabine watching him from the doorway of the bathroom. “Where are you? Is something wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Adrien said hastily. “We’re all fine. We’re, uh, at the hospital.”

Tom almost dropped the phone. “The hospital?!” He shared a panicked look with his wife, and she came over to him and gripped his hand.

“Everyone’s fine!” Adrien said. “I, uh . . . well, I woke up to find Marinette sleepwalking—”

“Sleepwalking?” Tom repeated. “She’s never done that before.”

Adrien laughed nervously. “Maybe it can happen randomly? Anyway, I’ve heard it’s not good to wake up sleepwalkers, so I followed her, and I was surprised when she wandered outside. While I was trying to figure out how to get her back home, she went into labor.”

“Labor?!” Tom bellowed. Sabine’s hands flew up to cover her mouth.

“Yes, but it’s fine! It’s over now!” Adrien said. “It was pretty short, and Marinette’s fine, and the baby’s fine, and everyone’s fine.”

Tom’s heart thudded in his chest. “The baby? He’s . . . he’s born?” Sabine gripped his arm tightly in both her hands.

“Yes. Everything’s fine,” Adrien repeated. “Sorry we didn’t call you earlier, but it all happened so quickly, there wasn’t time. But we’re here at the hospital whenever you’re ready to come by. I know Marinette’s eager to see you.”

“Of course! Of course! We’ll be right over!”

“And maybe bring her some of her things?” Adrien suggested. “We’ve got nothing but our pajamas. I was, uh, lucky that I fell asleep with my phone in my pocket.”

Relief and joy flooded through Tom, and he laughed. “Marinette’s always rushing everywhere barely-prepared. I’m not surprised this was no different.”

Sabine whispered to him, “She’s all right?”

Tom smiled and wrapped an arm around her. “Adrien says everyone’s just fine.” Sabine relaxed against him, and he told Adrien, “We’ll get some things for both of you and be right over.”

After he hung up, Tom beamed at his wife. “We have a grandson!”

“Oh, this is so exciting!” Sabine cried, hugging him tightly.

He wanted to pick her up and swing her around, but he had to be careful because of her own pregnancy. They needed to hurry, and he was beyond eager to make sure Marinette was really okay, but he took a few seconds to hold his wife close, bending down to press his cheek to hers. “A grandson,” he said again, the idea terrifying, surreal, and wonderful.

Sabine stroked one of his cheeks with her hand. “She’ll be fine, Tom. They all will be. They’re good, smart, responsible kid— _people_ , and they’ll figure this out.”

“I know,” he said, grinning. “Now let’s hurry and go meet our grandson.”

She laughed and showed him a hand covered in white cream. “Maybe you should finish shaving first.”

#

_Okay, I can handle this_ , Marinette thought as she sat in the hospital bed, getting milked by a machine like a dairy cow. Sure, it was weird and uncomfortable, but only physically. The worst it was doing to her emotionally was embarrassing her because she was sure she looked ridiculous, but she figured she’d get used to that. (She certainly had enough experience with embarrassment, and it hadn’t killed her yet.)

She was alone in the room except for Adrien, who sat on the other side of a privacy screen. Even though she knew he couldn’t see her, just knowing he was right there while this was happening made her blush right down to her bare chest.

“So, uh, we should probably get our story straight,” Adrien said. “Unless you think we should hide that we’re together now.” She could hear in his tone that he didn’t want to hide it.

Neither did she, though it did complicate things slightly. “No, we should tell them. It would be too much work to hide it, anyway.” But what to tell them? Puzzling out that problem took her mind off the pumping and helped alleviate the embarrassment. “My parents know both of us were seeing someone, and they assumed it was other people since _we_ thought it was other people. As for our friends, the only ones who knew I was seeing someone were Alya and probably Nino, and they already know the truth.”

“No one at school knows I was seeing anyone, either,” said Adrien. “Or if they suspected anything, they never talked to me about it. So we shouldn’t have to worry too much there.”

“What about your dad?” she asked.

“I never told Father about seeing anyone, and I don’t know any reason why he would have thought _you_ were. I know he likes you, so we should be able to just tell him.”

“He likes me?” Marinette asked, surprised.

“Sure, he does. Why wouldn’t he? You’re clever and kind and a great designer. I know he doesn’t show his feelings that much, but I can tell. I even asked him about it once, and he didn’t deny it, which for him is basically admitting it.”

If that was true, then it was great news. Marinette had admired Gabriel Agreste for years as a designer. Knowing she had his approval as a future daughter-in-law, if that’s what Adrien meant, was almost as good as hearing that he saw promise in her as a designer. “So, it sounds like it’s just my parents.”

“Yeah. Though we will need to come up with something to tell everyone else, how we went from just friends to engaged so quickly.”

“I’m not sure it’ll be that hard,” Marinette said. “Everyone in our class . . . pretty much already knows that I’ve been in love with you for a while.”

Adrien was silent for a few seconds. “They do?”

“Y-yeah. The girls have known for a long time, and we had to tell the boys so they understood why I needed help talking to you after . . . um, after Fairy Grandmother.”

More silence. “That explains some things. Why didn’t anyone ever tell me?”

“I didn’t want them to.” It felt kind of selfish now that she said it out loud. “I was sure you didn’t feel the same way, since you’d said there was a girl you were in love with. After what happened, I was afraid you’d . . . think that somehow I’d let it happen, to . . . take advantage of you.”

His chair scraped against the floor as he suddenly stood. “I would never have thought that!”

Marinette fiddled with her fingertips. He thought that now because now he loved her, but how could either of them know what he’d have actually thought at the time? “Then later, I couldn’t risk anything getting weird between us, for Louis’s sake.”

Adrien sat back down. “I . . . see what you mean. I’m sorry again that I put you through all that uncertainty and worry, Marinette. I was always so sure I’d recognize Ladybug right away without her mask, but you were so close for so long, and it never even . . . Well, actually, it did occur to me once. But then you pulled that Multimouse trick, and I had to believe my own eyes when I saw the two of you together.”

“See? It wasn’t your fault entirely for not picking up on it, when I made such an effort to hide it from you. I could have figured out your identity, too, but . . . ” She sighed. “That’s all in the past, and I’m sure we’ll both keep having ‘why didn’t I see it?’ moments, but let’s at least agree to stop apologizing to each other about it. Okay?”

“Okay, Milady.”

“So, about the people at school . . . ”

She could hear the smile in his voice when he said, “It sounds like all I have to do is tell them that I came to my senses.”

She huffed a laugh. “Pretty much.”

“Then that’s settled. And your parents?”

“That’s trickier, but I think I have an idea.”

Twenty minutes later, the pump was put away, the privacy screen was gone, and Adrien was in a chair beside the bed, feeding Louis from a bottle with an expression of pure contentment on his face. Marinette was so engrossed in watching the two of them that she barely heard the knock at the door.

When the knock came again, the door cracked open, and her mother’s face appeared. “Marinette, sweetie?”

“Mom!” Marinette called out. “Come in!” She wanted to run into her mom’s arms, but as soon as she tried to move, she remembered how sore her body still was. Adrien didn’t move from where he was sitting, either, but they both watched her parents enter, hardly able to contain their excitement.

As soon as they were in the room and her father spotted Louis, his fists went to his mouth like a schoolgirl, and he let out a delighted squeal. “Is that him?”

“No, Dad, it’s a different baby,” Marinette joked.

Sabine came over to Marinette’s bed and leaned over to hug her, having the same difficulty that Alya’d had. Marinette gratefully wrapped her arms around her mom’s shoulders, reveling in the familiar comfort and security.

“How do you feel, sweetheart?” Sabine asked.

“Tired and sore, but not all that bad, considering. I’m so glad you and Dad are here.”

Sabine pulled back but held onto Marinette’s hand. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to be here for the birth.”

“It’s okay, Mom. I know you would have if you could have, but things happened so quickly.”

“Yes, Adrien told us.”

Marinette turned her head to smile at Adrien and found him looking right back at her. “He was here with me the whole time.”

Tom changed places with Sabine to give Marinette a big hug, and then Adrien stood to show them the baby. He set the empty bottle aside and cradled Louis in his arms, angling him enough that Tom and Sabine could see. “This is Louis,” Adrien said, his voice thick with pride. “Would you like to hold him?”

“Louis,” Sabine repeated. “What a lovely name. May I?”

Tom helped Sabine sit on the nearby couch, then he and Adrien sat on either side of her and Adrien passed the baby to her.

As Sabine cooed over her grandson, Tom said, “Congratulations, you two. This is a life-changing moment.”

“I know,” Marinette said, so full of happiness at seeing her family all together like this, she couldn’t have stopped smiling if she’d tried.

They sat there for a while, all absorbed in the baby. Eventually, Tom wanted his turn to hold Louis. The sight of her huge father holding her tiny son was adorable and heartwarming, so Marinette was glad when Adrien used his phone to take a picture.

Tom asked, “What last name are you giving him?”

Marinette and Adrien exchanged a look. Time to deliver the news. “Agreste,” Marinette answered.

Her parents looked up at her, then at each other, both suddenly smirking.

Maybe this news wouldn’t be as hard to explain as Marinette thought.

“So, um, there is something else we wanted to tell you,” Adrien said.

“Is there?” Tom asked, sounding distinctly amused.

“You know how I told you before that I wasn’t going to marry Marinette? I’m . . . gonna need to take that back.”

Sabine broke into a brilliant smile, and Tom mock-scowled at Adrien. “You’re saying you lied to me, son?”

“No, no!” Adrien waved his hands in negation. “I meant it at the time. But . . . well, the thing with the girl I said I loved . . . didn’t really work out how I thought it would. And tonight, I realized that . . . that I’ve been falling in love with Marinette for a while now.”

Marinette chimed in with her side. “You guys know—or I think you know—that I’ve been in love with Adrien for a long time. I tried to get over it when I found out he loved someone else, which is why I was seeing the guy I’d been seeing, but . . . it’s always been Adrien for me.”

Tom was still mock-serious, but his mouth was definitely starting to curl at the edges. “So, what does this mean?”

“It means, sir—Tom—that we want a real life together with our son. I’ve asked Marinette to marry me, and she’s said yes.”

Sabine clapped and cheered, “How wonderful! We’ve been waiting for this. I’m glad you two finally came around to each other.”

“Now, now, hold on,” said Tom, keeping up the act. “You didn’t even ask my permission first?”

“Well,” said Adrien, looking a little uncomfortable, “you said before that you wanted me to make her happy, so I figured that counted. Besides—and I mean this in the most respectful way possible, sir—but I want to marry Marinette, not you.”

Tom’s composure broke entirely, and he laughed. “That’s true.”

“Though you are still minors,” Sabine pointed out kindly. “You will need our permission to marry.”

“Oh, we don’t plan to do it right away,” Marinette clarified. “We plan to take things slow and get married in maybe a couple years.”

Sabine nodded in approval. “That sounds like a smart plan.”

Tom’s laughter trailed off as his brows lowered in thought. “So, what are your plans in the mean time? Is Adrien going to keep living with us?”

Marinette said, “Oh, no, that would be too crowded, especially with your baby coming soon. Adrien already came up with a solution to that problem, and I’ve agreed to it. I think it will work out really well.”

Adrien explained the whole house plan, making sure to emphasize the dorm-like aspect of having a boys’ room and a girls’ room, as well as the fact that there’d be a proper adult (not counting the nanny) present, so her parents knew everything would stay honest and respectable.

By the time he finished, Tom and Sabine were both nodding in approval. “It sounds like you’ve got everything planned out,” said Sabine. “And while we’d love to have you keep staying with us, it’s true that we would run into a space issue.”

“We’ll need to stay at home for a little while,” Marinette said. “Maybe a few weeks? Until everything gets settled and ready with the house.”

Tom eyed Adrien. “In that case, will we need to find a different place for Adrien to sleep? Now that you’re a couple, that is.”

Marinette and Adrien both blushed. “Not necessary, s—Tom,” said Adrien. “Nothing’s going to happen. I mean, it wouldn’t anyway, but especially not while she’s recovering from childbirth.”

All Marinette could do was nod fervently in agreement, since she was so mortified that her throat wouldn’t work to speak.

“In that case,” Tom said, his previous warning tone gone in an instant, “I’ll try to make sure everything’s ready for you when you get back. How long do you need to stay in the hospital?”

“Only until tomorrow afternoon,” Marinette answered, “unless anything unexpected shows up, but Dr. Sienne thinks everything will be fine and we’ll be able to go home then.”

“If it’s okay,” said Adrien, “I may have some deliveries made to the house. Just a few things that we’ll need right away for the baby.”

“That’ll be fine,” Tom answered. “Say, have I ever told you about Marinette when she was a baby?”

Adrien grinned. “Nope!”

“Dad!”


	83. Chapter 83

The day passed by quickly. In addition to learning to bottle-feed his son, Adrien learned how to change a diaper and burp the baby, as well as some other important things about newborn care. Then he lay on the couch and cuddled his son to his bare chest, doing that kangaroo care thing he’d tried with Alix and Nathaniel's son. It had been really nice with a friend’s baby, but it was even better with his own. The room was so quiet with both Louis and Marinette napping that he nearly dozed off himself, but he didn’t want to miss a minute of holding his Little Bun like this and talking softly to him.

Later, after Marinette woke up, Adrien made a phone call to Nathalie. He and Marinette had put certain things off way too long, and while he was going to make up the real nursery in the new house, he needed to have a few essentials delivered so they’d have them in Marinette’s room when they got home from the hospital.

“Sorry to bother you about this,” he told Nathalie after he’d explained what he needed. “I know you’re busy planning for your own baby.”

“It’s fine,” she said. “I’ve had everything I need for three months now.”

Of course she had. “By the way, I told Marinette about the house plan, and she’s on board. So are her parents. Honestly, I think you being there with us helped convince them it was a good idea.”

“Since the two of you won’t be married,” she said, “it’s entirely expected that her parents would feel more comfortable if they believe there’s a chaperon in the house.”

Adrien resisted the urge to tell them Marinette and he weren’t married _yet_. He really shouldn’t tell Nathalie before he told his father. “Is that what you’re planning to be?” he asked, honestly curious.

“I’ll be a guest in your house, Adrien. It’s not my place to dictate your behavior. I’ll be there to help you keep your schedule and work commitments. If you’d like my help in any other ways, I’d be happy to fill any such roles that I can, within reason.”

“First of all, you won’t be a guest,” Adrien told her. “I won’t have any guests or renters living in my house. Only family. Do you get me, Nathalie?”

Her tone softened considerably. “Yes, Adrien. Thank you.”

“Good. Second, does Father want you to be a chaperon?”

“If your father has any expectations regarding your behavior while living away from him, he’ll convey them to you himself.”

“I’m sure he will,” Adrien said.

“Your father will probably want to send the nanny to Marinette’s house to help you with the baby until you move into your house,” Nathalie said.

Adrien hadn’t thought of that, but if he and Marinette were up for even a quarter of the exhaustion that Nathaniel had experienced after bringing his boys home, they might really need the help. “I’ll have to talk with Marinette about it. Does Father already have a nanny in mind?”

“He’s narrowed down a list of five candidates with the appropriate references, credentials, and experience, and he’s already had background checks done on all of them. I can set up interviews with you and Marinette to make the final decision whenever you’re ready.”

That was . . . remarkably magnanimous of Gabriel. “That’s great news. I’ll let you know once I talk with Marinette about it.” Hopefully the five candidates wouldn’t all be terrible, although it wasn’t unthinkable for Gabriel to offer him only the appearance of a choice. Adrien decided to remain optimistic about it.

“ ‘I’ll talk with Marinette about it’,” Nathalie repeated in a bemused voice. “I get the feeling I’ll be hearing a lot of that from now on.”

“Is that a problem?” Adrien challenged.

“Not when it concerns her,” Nathalie replied. “It’s . . . refreshing.”

“Nathalie?” Adrien asked, suddenly curious. “Why is it that you want to move into our house?” When she’d asked to, the reason had seemed too personal for him to ask about, but maybe she’d tell him.

She was silent for long enough that Adrien was afraid he’d overstepped, but finally she said, “I want the best life for my son that I can give him. I want him to know his father, but given the choice between a home with his father and a home with his brother, I know which environment will lead to his greater happiness.”

Adrien felt simultaneously heartbroken and touched. And a little guilty, because he knew this house plan was likely to be only an ‘until we’re really adults’ thing and not a ‘for the rest of our lives’ thing. Still . . . “I’ll do my best for him, Nathalie. I know Marinette will, too.”

“I know, Adrien. I have complete faith in you.”

“And Nathalie? I know it’s not my place to say, but for what it’s worth . . . I’m sorry about Father. I don’t know why he can’t return your feelings, but you have my vote.”

There were traces of both amusement and sadness in her voice when she answered. “I don’t think you’d say that if you knew the full story, but thank you. However, I knew what I was getting into with him. It’s my fault for not controlling my emotions better.” And on that note, she returned to her usual dispassionate self. “I’ll make arrangements for those things you asked for, and your father and I will come to the hospital at seven.”

“Sounds good, Nathalie.” He wanted to ask more about ‘the full story’, but he knew a conversation-ender when he heard one.

Adrien got a nap in, and then at four o’clock, Adrien, Marinette, and Louis visited Alix in her room. Marinette still wasn’t feeling a hundred percent, so Adrien pushed her in a wheelchair while she held Louis. Adrien knocked lightly on Alix’s door and entered when she called out to them.

As soon as they came into the room (much smaller than theirs), Alix’s face lit up. “Hey, you guys!” She was sitting up and reading what looked like a draft of a comic.

“Hi, Alix!” Marinette said.

“Dude!” Alix’s gaze locked onto Louis. “Is that your kid?”

“Yeah!” Marinette said. “You want to meet him?”

Adrien pushed the wheelchair up to one side of Alix’s bed, then moved to the other side where a chair was placed. “How are you doing, Alix?”

Alix pushed the comic pages farther down the bed, then Marinette got up and passed Louis to her. They’d made sure to check with the nurse first, but she’d told them (by Alix’s permission) that while Alix’s body had taken a beating from the infection she’d gotten and it would take her some time to recover, the infection itself was gone, so there was no danger in being around her.

“I’m doing all right,” Alix said. “Good days and bad.” She didn’t seem to have any trouble holding Louis, so she wasn’t as weak as she’d been before. “Alya and Nino came by last night and told me you were here. I’d have gone to see you, but I wasn’t sure when would be a good time. I’m glad you came.”

“Of course,” said Adrien. “Sorry it took this long. We’ve been kind of swamped.”

Alix laughed. “I bet. This sure is a cute kid you guys made. What’s his name?”

“Louis,” Marinette told her.

“Nice.” Alix touched one of Louis’s hands with her finger, and he gripped onto it. “How was the delivery?”

“Not as bad as yours, from what I’ve heard,” Marinette said. “I mean, it sucked big time, but relatively speaking, it went really well.”

Alix nodded. “Good. I hope none of the rest of our friends have to go through what I did. It was worth it, but if you can have a normal delivery, go for that instead.” She paused, then asked, “No one else has had their baby yet, have they?”

“Not that I’ve heard,” Marinette answered.

“It’s hard to stay in the loop from here,” Alix said. “Nathaniel visits as much as he can and lets me know what’s happening, and other people visit sometimes, but it still sucks to feel like I’m just sitting here while my friends go on with their lives.”

“I think I know what you mean,” Adrien said. “Sort of. I mean, feeling like other people are living their lives while you’re just stuck in a boring routine. Maybe it’s not the same.”

“Close enough,” Alix said. “So, Alya and Nino mentioned something about all of us living in a house together?”

Adrien perked up. “Right! How much did they tell you?”

“Not a whole lot. Just asked if Nathaniel and I had a plan for the babies when I got out of here yet, and I said we didn’t, and they said you and them were going to live in some house you bought and wanted to know if we were in.”

Adrien nodded. “That’s pretty much it. There’s not room at Marinette’s house for all of us, and we don’t really want to live in my father’s mansion, so Father agreed to buy a house for me. It’ll be mine, so you guys don’t have to worry about paying rent or being indebted to him at all.”

Alix raised an eyebrow at him. “Your old man bought you a house? Dang, must be nice to be rich.”

“Well, uh . . . he didn’t exactly do it for free.” Adrien hadn’t gotten around to mentioning this part to Marinette yet, but now was as good a time as any. “I kind of had to unofficially agree to keep modeling and eventually take over his company.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw Marinette’s jaw drop. “Is that . . . is that okay with you?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t actually have any other plans for my career, so I’m fine with it. My life goals are really more about marrying the girl I love and having a family with her, so my career is just a way of supporting them, and the Gabriel company is probably a better way to do that than most.”

Alix’s eyes slid between him and Marinette. “Marry the girl you love, huh? And who would that be?”

Adrien felt himself blush but couldn’t stop his grin. “That would be Marinette.”

“Yeah!” Alix fist-pumped. Then punched his shoulder. “It’s about time.”

“I know,” he murmured.

“Congrats, Marinette,” Alix told her. “What, did you finally confess?”

Marinette avoided Alix’s eyes. “Yeah, that was pretty much it.”

“I’ve been falling in love with her for months now,” Adrien said. “I just didn’t realize it until last night.”

Alix laughed and shook her head. “Boys.”

Louis started fussing as Alix held him, his face nuzzling against her breast over the hospital gown she wore.

Adrien’s face got hot, but he wasn’t sure what to say. “Um, I feel like I should apologize. He doesn’t normally do that.”

“Nah, it’s fine,” said Alix, lifting him toward Marinette. “He’s just hungry.”

Adrien could see the extreme discomfort in Marinette’s face and tried to save her the explanation. “Marinette just pumped. We’ve been bottle-feeding him, since breastfeeding is uncomfortable for her.”

“Oh,” Alix said. “That’s cool. I’ve got it.” Then she popped a breast out of her gown and offered it to Louis.

Adrien stared in shock, unable to tear his eyes away even though his face was so hot he felt like a volcano about to erupt. With total nonchalance, Alix helped Louis latch onto her and held him as he started nursing.

Forcing himself to blink, Adrien looked across the bed to Marinette, who met his eyes. She didn’t even look angry that he’d been staring. She appeared to be just as shocked as he was, her face bright red.

“Um . . . ” Adrien asked, looking at Alix’s face even though he could still see Louis nursing in his peripheral vision. “Is that okay?”

“What do you mean?” asked Alix.

Robotically, Adrien pressed the nurse call button, and a nurse he recognized as the one who’d helped deliver Louis came in. Adrien pointed at Alix and Louis. “Is that okay?”

The nurse must have recognized from Louis’s hair color that he was theirs and not one of Alix’s twins. She picked up the chart from the end of the bed and checked it. “She’s healthy enough to be pumping for her own babies. It should be fine if she’s fine with it, but I’ll double check with the doctor.”

The nurse left.

Alix was not even trying to cover herself up.

“You’re . . . pretty casual about all this,” Marinette said.

“Yeah, I’m used to it by now.” Maybe she finally noticed their red faces. “Oh, sorry. Does this bother you?”

“It’s fine!” Marinette insisted. “It’s just . . . um . . . weird?”

Adrien’s eyes strayed to his son happily suckling away. It was extremely strange, especially since it was _Alix_ , but if everyone was fine with it, he wasn’t going to complain. It was actually oddly touching, that their friend would offer something so personal for their baby as if it were a totally natural instinct. That instinct to help, heedless of personal cost . . . Yeah, it made sense that future Ladybug had chosen her for a Miraculous.

“You’re staring, Adrien,” said Marinette. She’d gotten over her shock and embarrassment and was now in ‘not amused’ territory.

“Sorry!” He raised his hands in surrender. “It’s not—I’m not—uh . . . ” Was there any good way out of this?

Marinette sighed. “Alix, I appreciate you helping out, but for the sake of my fiancé, could you maybe cover up? His poor brain isn’t ready for what he’s seeing.”

“Ah, gotcha.” Alix adjusted her gown to hide her breast and Louis’s head from Adrien’s view. “Fiancé, huh?”

Adrien grabbed onto the topic change with both hands. “Yeah! We’re not going to actually get married for a while, but there’s no point pretending we don’t want to spend our lives together.”

“I’m happy for you guys,” Alix said. “Seriously. You guys are a perfect couple.”

The door opened without a knock, and a familiar redhead entered. “Uh, Alix . . . ” He stopped when he saw Adrien and Marinette. “Oh, hey!”

Marinette waved at him. “Hi, Nathaniel!”

Nathaniel set his bag on the large windowsill. “Alix, the nurse said to tell you ‘it’s fine’. I don’t know what that means.”

“Probably this,” Alix answered, nodding toward her chest.

Nathaniel looked where she was indicating and cocked his head. “Whose baby is that?” With a start, he darted his gaze between Adrien and Marinette. “Oh! Is it yours?”

“Yeah,” Adrien said, feeling vaguely uncomfortable. “I . . . feel like I should apologize.”

Nathaniel shrugged. “It’s her milk.” Despite the casual air he tried for, he couldn’t hide the light blush in his cheeks. Not even by ducking his head to hide behind his bangs.

 _Does he still have feelings for her?_ Adrien wondered. Considering that blush, probably. The question was: did she know?

Nathaniel pulled a chair over from near the window to sit by Adrien. “Alya told the class you guys were gone because Marinette had her baby. Everyone wanted to come visit, but she said they should wait until you came back to school so you don’t get swarmed.”

Marinette nodded. “I appreciate that. I’ve been pretty exhausted today, and things went well enough that we’ll be back at school soon, anyway.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” said Nathaniel. He looked toward the baby, not that he could see much from this angle. “What’s his name?”

“Louis,” Adrien said. “You want to hold him once Alix is done?”

“Oh!” Nathaniel seemed startled that Adrien would offer. “A-all right. Yeah.”

“You don’t have to.”

“No, I want to. It’s just . . . weird to remember that other people are having babies too, I guess.”

“We’re gonna be swimming in babies by the time a few more weeks pass,” Alix said.

Marinette asked, “Where are Daniel and Aleron?”

“Ivan and Mylène are watching them,” Nathaniel said, “so I could check on Alix and bring her homework.” He asked Alix, “Did you pump any milk for the boys today?”

“Yeah, a few bottles.”

“Okay, good.” His eyes met Adrien’s, and he said, almost apologetically, “I hate that she has to do that when she’s still recovering, but the boys really do need all the real human milk they can get.”

Adrien’s attention was drawn automatically to Marinette. She wore exactly the look of determination that he expected to see. The one that said she was absolutely going to try to return the favor, probably several times over, if she could. _There’s my Ladybug_ , he thought with pride and love, once again struck by how blind he’d been not to recognize his lady in Marinette’s determination to help her friends. Or maybe he had noticed and somehow still not put them together. _‘Everyday Ladybug’?_ That was what he’d once called her. _More like, ‘Every day, Ladybug’._

“Hey, Nath,” said Alix. “Did you hear about the house?”

“What house?” he asked.

“Adrien’s dad bought him a house.”

Nathaniel gave Adrien a wide-eyed stare like he’d never heard of home-ownership before. “Really?”

“Uh . . . yeah.” Adrien explained the whole house thing again, up to the point where Alya and Nino were joining them, along with Nathalie and a yet-to-be-determined nanny. He couldn’t really explain why he and Marinette had more room than they ended up needing, since it wasn’t like they could just out their superhero identities like that, but an explanation wasn’t really necessary. “So, it’s actually a pretty big house, and I’m sure there’s room for a couple more people. Or a couple more parents and a couple more babies. If you guys are interested.”

Nathaniel had maintained an expression of polite interest, occasionally interrupted with a ‘wow, that’s cool’ face for the whole explanation. Suddenly, his eyes widened again as he figured out that Adrien wasn’t just giving him an update on his own life but was saying something directly relevant to him. His head jerked like a bird’s toward Alix, then Marinette, before jerking back to Adrien. “Us? Really? You want us to live there with you guys?”

“We’d really love to have you there,” Adrien said. “You’re our good friends, and this way you won’t have to separate your sons.”

Before he could form an answer, Nathaniel started crying. At first, it was just tears silently dripping down his face, then he sobbed and smiled hugely before covering his face with his hands in the weirdest relieved happy-crying Adrien had ever seen. Adrien expected him to say something, but as more and more seconds passed, Adrien wondered if he would, and eventually he turned to Alix for an explanation.

She chuckled. “That’s a yes. From both of us.”

Suddenly, Nathaniel threw his arms around Adrien and squeezed tightly, making Adrien jump. The other boy’s voice was a choked whisper against his shoulder. “Yes. Thank you.”

“It’s my pleasure,” Adrien said, patting Nathaniel’s arm. “Really, I’m so excited to live in a house with friends my age. After a lifetime being an only child, with only Chloe for occasional company . . . I’m just really, really excited, guys.”

Nathaniel released Adrien and wiped his face on his sleeve, then let out a big sigh.

Alix pulled Louis away from her breast and adjusted her gown. She passed him to Adrien, who handed him to Nathaniel.

While holding babies was still new to Adrien, and he wasn’t always sure he was doing it correctly, Nathaniel held Louis like he’d been caring for babies his whole life. He cradled him in his arms and brushed his cheek with a finger. “Hi, Louis. I guess we’re gonna be housemates. I’ve got some friends for you to meet soon.”

 _Friends_ , Adrien thought. _My son will have friends._

Alix reached over to nudge Marinette. “You gonna tell him the rest of your news?”

Nathaniel looked up curiously.

“Uh, yeah, well, uh . . . ” Marinette played with her hands. Adrien decided to sit back and let her work it out unless she asked for help. “Well, Adrien and I are kinda . . . no, definitely—we’re definitely . . . uh . . . ”—her voice dropped to almost a whisper—“engaged.”

Nathaniel blinked, then slowly smiled. He grinned at Adrien, who grinned back. “What took you so long?”

“General obliviousness,” Adrien answered.

Nathaniel snorted. “No kidding.” His smile slowly fell into a frown. “If you’re engaged, and Nino and Alya are engaged . . . um . . . are things gonna be . . . weird?”

“What? No!” Adrien said. “We’re engaged, but we’re taking it slow.”

“Super slow,” Marinette added, her face as red as his. “Like, super PG, kid-friendly, you’re-definitely-not-going-to-walk-in-on-anything slow.”

Nathaniel was visibly relieved. “Okay.”

Desperate for a change of topic, Adrien picked up one of the comic pages from the bed. “So, what’s this?”

“Oh, that’s the draft of our latest comic issue,” Nathaniel said. “I wanted some feedback from Alix on it.” He asked her, “What did you think of it?”

Alix gave him a thumbs-up. “It’s wicked good. You and Marc really nailed Ladybug.”

Adrien didn’t love how Alix had worded that, but no one else seemed to find it weird, so he refrained from saying anything.

From the other side of the bed, Marinette picked up a page and examined it. “Your art’s really good, Nathaniel. Although . . . ”

“What?” he asked with instantaneous, desperate insecurity.

Marinette flipped the page to show them a drawing of Ladybug and Cat Noir in action. “Your Cat Noir is a little too buff. He’s skinnier than that in real life.” Beside the paper, her eyes met Adrien’s with a teasing spark which was completely not fair right now.

“I disagree,” Adrien said, crossing his arms, before Nathaniel had a chance to respond to the critique. “Cat Noir is totally buff. I think you’ve captured him perfectly.”

“Well, I mean, there’s a certain amount of artistic interpretation there,” Nathaniel hedged.

“Very _generous_ artistic interpretation,” Marinette said.

This was so not fair. Sure, Adrien could have said something like, ‘You drew Ladybug’s boobs too big,’ or ‘Her waist isn’t that tiny,’ but—even though both of those things were true when he looked closely at the comic—Adrien loved her just the way she was, and he didn’t want to risk her believing that he didn’t. _He_ was confident about his looks (he was a famous, successful model, after all; he’d have to be exceptionally stupid to believe he wasn’t good-looking), which made it an easy target for teasing. But he couldn’t easily tease her back in kind. And he couldn’t go into full Cat Noir mode in front of Alix and Nathaniel.

Which meant she won, and she knew it.

“Agree to disagree,” he said tightly, since he couldn’t say much else. It was a concession of defeat, and she recognized it as such, grinning cheekily back at him. _Man, I love that girl._

Alix laughed. “It’s so weird to see you guys talking like a couple of normal humans. Good weird, though.”

Marinette became self-conscious at the reminder, her posture reverting to the shyness she’d so often shown around him in the past. Adrien smirked. He’d have to think of how he could use that particular button of hers against her when sparring in the future. If he could make Ladybug revert to a flustered puddle around him, that would definitely count as a win.

After chatting with Nathaniel and Alix for a while longer, Adrien and Marinette went back to their room and prepared themselves for his father’s visit. Adrien made sure to change into semi-respectable-looking day clothes, and Marinette got out of her nightgown and into a loose blouse and stretchy lounge pants. They didn’t have any clothes for Louis, but they wrapped him in a blue, hand-knit blanket that Marinette had made for him.

Gabriel and Nathalie arrived at seven p.m. precisely.

Marinette was feeling good enough that she didn’t need to stay in the bed, so she and Adrien were sitting on the couch with Louis in Marinette’s arms when two sharp knocks came from the door.

Adrien got up to answer it and found Gabriel waiting on the other side, with Nathalie at his elbow. “Hello, Father. Please, come in.” He led them toward the couch, where Marinette stood to greet them. Adrien put his arm around her shoulders and indicated their son. “This is Louis.”

With his hands clasped behind him as usual, Gabriel looked at the baby in Marinette’s arms. His expression was unreadable. “He’s healthy?”

“Yes, Father.”

Gabriel’s eyes flicked up to Marinette. “And I take it you’re well, also?”

“Y-yes,” she said. “Thank you for asking.” She looked to Nathalie. “Would you like to sit down?”

Nathalie looked to Gabriel for permission, and to Adrien’s surprise, his father’s posture softened, and he gave her a small nod.

The whole tone of the room shifted into something slightly more comfortable. Nathalie and Marinette sat on the couch, and Adrien took his son and held him so that his father could see him.

Adrien waited for his father to say something else, and when he didn’t, he offered, “Would you . . . like to hold him?”

Gabriel appeared uncertain at that, his Adam’s apple bobbing once, but then he said, “Very well.”

He was clearly out of practice, but he knew the correct way to hold a baby and managed to support Louis’s body adequately, if not in the natural, comfortable way that Nathaniel had. Gabriel gazed down at his grandson, and Louis cracked open his eyes to peer at him. Gabriel’s breath caught. “He has your eyes,” he said.

“You mean Mom’s eyes?” Adrien said very quietly. “Yes.”

Gabriel gave him a brief look that Adrien couldn’t read, then cleared his throat. “Congratulations, son. Marinette.” It was stiff and formal, an obligatory statement, but Adrien was still grateful for it.

“Thank you, Father.”

Gabriel passed Louis back to Adrien and straightened. “Nathalie tells me that Marinette has agreed to move into your house and that her parents have given their permission. I’m pleased to see your plan was successful.”

The approval made Adrien glow. “Yes, Father. Thank you. And since it’s such a big house, we’ve asked some of our friends to move in with us, too. Nino and Alya and their daughter when she’s born, as well as Nathaniel and Alix and their twins.”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. “Three additional infants?”

“Is that all right, Father? Please. This is really important to me.”

“These are your classmates?”

“Yes. Nino and Alya were there with us when . . . uh, during the Fairy Grandmother attack. And Alix had a really hard pregnancy and birth, and with twins, this might be the only way for them to keep both brothers together . . . ”

Gabriel let out a breath. “I’ll make it work, though we may need to hire an assistant nanny.” He glanced at Nathalie, and she made a note on her tablet.

Adrien shared an ecstatic smile with Marinette. He didn’t know what was causing his father to be so accommodating about all of this, but Adrien was grateful beyond words.

“But you should know, Adrien,” his father continued sternly, “I’m putting a lot of trust in you to live on your own. Nathalie will be there to help, but she’s not your guardian, and you are still a minor. I expect you and your friends to conduct yourself in a way that will not tarnish either your reputation or that of the Gabriel brand. If you can’t live up to these standards, I will bring you back home until you are no longer a minor. Do you understand?”

Adrien nodded, having expected something like this. “Yes, Father. You won’t need to worry about that. All my friends are very responsible, and I’ll remind them that the media will probably be watching them.”

“Good.” Gabriel’s sharp gaze slid from Adrien to Marinette, and he asked in a leading tone, “Is there anything else you’d like to tell me?”

Adrien gulped. “Uh, y-yes, Father. I know this probably seems sudden, but . . . Marinette and I are in love. And we’re going to get married—not now, but in a couple years or so.”

To Adrien’s shock, Gabriel actually smirked at that. “Excellent. I believed that you would make the right choice, and I’m pleased to see that I was correct, although it took you long enough.”

Adrien’s jaw dropped. “You too?!” Did _everyone_ know how Marinette had felt about him except him? He looked at Nathalie, who was also smirking.

Marinette giggled, though she covered it with her hand right away.

“It’s been obvious how she felt about you for some time,” Gabriel said. “And the more I learned about her, the more convinced I became that she would make an excellent choice of wife for you. Well done, son.”

Adrien averted his eyes and blushed, pleased at his father’s words but embarrassed that apparently everyone had been just waiting around for Adrien to figure out what they all already knew.

“Thank you, sir,” said Marinette. “It means a lot to have your approval.”

Gabriel actually gave her a very small smile and an infinitesimal nod. “When you’re finished with high school, I’ll have a job waiting for you. Unless you’d prefer to attend a design school first.”

Marinette didn’t seem to know how to respond to that. “O-oh. Thank you?”

“Because of your exceptional promise,” Gabriel clarified. “Trust me, I wouldn’t risk harm to my company purely to engage in nepotism. Your skill as a designer and potential as a businesswoman has earned you my favor as a daughter-in-law, not the other way around. The fact that my son is in love with you is entirely his own business, though I certainly have no reason to be against it.”

Adrien was genuinely uncertain how to feel about that, but Marinette nodded acceptance. “I understand, sir. I look forward to working for the Gabriel company in the future.”

That seemed to please his father, and Marinette seemed to be okay with it, but it occurred to Adrien that by accepting his father’s conditions for buying the house, he may have inadvertently locked Marinette into a career path that might not have been the one she’d have chosen on her own. _Maybe I should have talked to her before accepting_ , he thought. But it was too late to worry about that now. He would just need to be more aware from now on of how his actions and choices affected Marinette and Louis. Being part of a family of his own was even more responsibility than he’d thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another delay (sorry). I'm just not on top of my game lately. I need to get quicker, for my own general productivity. I think the fact that these recent chapters are turning out much longer than usual isn't helping.


	84. Chapter 84

When Marinette stepped into her bedroom for the first time after bringing Louis home, she was surprised at how crowded it had become. The chaise had been shifted over to make room for a small crib, a large bag with diaper supplies was crammed beside her chest, and a variety of other items had suddenly filled every available inch of space.

Tikki and Plagg came out and explored the new stuff like a couple of curious cats.

“I’m suddenly really glad we’re getting our own house,” Marinette said.

“Yeah,” Adrien said, taking one of her hands to help her up the stairs while she held Louis with the other. “For as small as they are, babies take up a lot of space.”

It was almost dusk already, and even though Marinette had been doing pretty well at pumping enough to keep ahead of Louis’s needs, she had to do it way more often than she would have expected. As she was considering whether to pump now or after dinner, she was surprised by the extremely unwelcome sensation of a thick gush of blood flowing into the enormous pad the hospital had sent her home with.

Adrien caught her grimace of disgust. “You okay?”

“I . . . need to go to the bathroom.” She didn’t look at him as she handed him Louis. At times like this, she tried to think of him as her supportive, silly partner and not the dreamy boy she’d had a crush on for ages, but it was hard when he looked at her with such softness.

When she finally returned to her room twenty minutes later, there were wet spots on the front of her shirt. She tried to hide them from Adrien as she moved to her desk chair. “I’d better pump before dinner.” If it was leaking out on its own, it was probably time.

Adrien got up from the chaise. “All right. Do you want me to bring it up to you?”

Marinette was hungry and didn’t really want to wait, so she said, “Y-yes. Okay. Thank you.”

Adrien took Louis downstairs, and Marinette set up her changing screens to block off her desk area from view, then got things set up with the pump. Five minutes later, she heard the door open, and Adrien passed a plate around the screen.

“Your mom’s watching Louis for now. I have my own plate, so I can eat here with you if you want,” he offered.

“All right,” she said, still feeling really weird about him being here while she pumped, even on the other side of a screen, but she also liked the company. It was still so strange to remember that the boy she loved actually loved her back and they were actually a couple now. “We should probably talk about how we’re going to do this.”

She heard him sit on the chaise on the other side of the screen, his silverware scraping against his plate as he took a bite. “Do what?”

“Do we take turns getting up when he cries at night?” she asked, starting in on her own dinner.

“There’s no need,” Adrien said. “I’ll take care of him at night until we get the nanny. You need your rest.”

“Adrien, that’s not fair,” she protested.

“After what you had to go through the past couple days, I think it’s more than fair,” he said. “We’re bottle-feeding him, which means I can do it as easily as you, and I know how to change a diaper. There’s nothing you can do that I can’t, and you’ll have to do a lot more work during the day, with finding time to pump and all.”

“But you’ll be exhausted.”

“Maybe, but only until we get the nanny. I asked Nathalie to set up interviews for tomorrow after school, so hopefully we’ll have one soon, and then the nanny can take care of him during the night.”

She wanted to argue, but he was right. “I guess if it’s only for a couple days . . . ”

Tikki flew up beside her. “We can help, too. I’m really good at soothing babies, so if he’s just fussy, Plagg and I might be able to calm him down. And even if one of you does have to get up, we can help you figure out what’s wrong so you don’t waste time.”

“That would be really helpful,” Marinette said.

“Besides,” said Adrien, “if Hawk Moth attacks, it’ll be more important for you to not be sleep-deprived than it will for me.”

She shivered at the reminder. “I hope he gives us at least a couple days,” she said. “Now that I’m not pregnant, I need to get back into the fight, but it would be nice to not feel like crap when I have to do it.”

“We’re here for you, Marinette,” Adrien said. “If you need to ease back into it, we’ll totally understand.”

It had been a risk to give the others their Miraculouses long-term, but Marinette was glad she had a whole team to fight with, especially one made up of her friends. And as soon as she could, she’d make sure they all _knew_ they were her friends.

#

Adrien had never been so tired in his life. Not even that time he’d stayed up too late gaming, been woken at one a.m. to fight a supervillain, then had an early morning photoshoot. He didn’t know how many times he’d woken up to take care of Louis or how much sleep he’d ended up getting, but it was barely enough to function on.

He didn’t regret a moment of it, though. Each time he woke, his brain still had to adjust to the fact that he was a father now. And each time, a happy warmth spread through his chest. He had a son, and the mother was the girl he loved, who loved him back, and their whole future was waiting for them.

Tikki and Plagg must have been tired from watching over Louis, too, because one time Adrien woke up before they did and found them both sleeping in the cradle on either side of Louis. For the first time, Adrien really wished that kwamis could be captured on camera, because he wanted to take a snapshot of that scene, blow it up, and frame it. Maybe Marinette could sketch them if she caught them napping like that.

Adrien downed two cups of coffee at breakfast, even though he usually didn’t drink it, and did his best to pretend that he wasn’t exhausted. Before they went to school, Marinette got the baby bag packed (she was still groggy from having to get up much earlier than she was used to, even though she’d gotten more sleep than he had) and Sabine helped strap Louis into the baby sling on Adrien’s chest. Then Tom insisted on taking a photo like they were going to prom or something.

While Adrien was doing his best to look good for the photo, he noticed that Marinette couldn’t quite take her eyes off of him, though she was trying to hide it. He smirked and murmured, “What do you think? Hotter than normal?”

Marinette blushed but tried to hide it by booping his nose then kissing both Adrien and Louis on the cheek, which naturally prompted a few more clicks from Tom’s camera.

It was so weird that only a few days ago, they were still thinking they’d have weeks before the baby came. Now he was here, and it was back to school for them. Life didn’t just stand still. While the official policy was that any new mothers or fathers could take the standard amount of leave if they needed or really wanted to, everyone in Paris knew that if all the new parents actually did that, there would be a lot of problems. How many businesses or government offices would stop being able to function with so many staff out for several weeks? How would schools progress when so many students missed that much class? Would those students be held back—essentially punished for something they didn’t do—while the rest of the class moved forward? Or would the whole class have to be held back because some of the students couldn’t keep up?

It was just better for everyone if those who were able to tough it out and get back to their regular lives as quickly as possible did so. They were already going to have to adjust for cases like Alix, where some people weren’t physically able to get back to their jobs and schools, but the rest of them could fill in the gaps for those cases, the way people normally did when people had babies under more normal circumstances. So even though Adrien would have liked a few weeks to spend time with his son and Marinette and let her recover at leisure, they did their part and headed back to school. (Not that they could have really had that recovery time anyway, as long as Hawk Moth was still around.)

They didn’t see anyone until they got to the school courtyard, at which point they were immediately swarmed by not only friends but also quite a few students who Adrien didn’t even know. It reminded him an awful lot of the first day he’d come to school, when so many people had asked for his autograph. Thankfully, that fan craze had quickly died down as people got used to his presence, but with news as big as a new baby, it made sense that some of them would be interested.

People pulled out their cameras and took pictures of the three of them, like Adrien knew they would do. He was glad he’d remembered to post his own announcement on his social media earlier that morning—having put it off as long as possible to avoid the media frenzy that was likely to follow. As far as he knew, his was the first of the celebrity Fairy Grandmother babies to be born, not to mention how big a deal the press had made of him being the sort of spokesman for the victims, so it was definitely going to be big news. He trusted Nathalie to screen any inquiries that came through the proper channels, and he’d long since learned to not respond to most messages on his social media. People would be curious, though, so he’d already taken lots of adorable pics of the whole family (but especially Louis) to post over the next day or two, and he’d keep posting good photos to keep the public’s interest in him sated so reporters didn’t start hounding them all.

As Marinette answered the questions that got thrown at them, Adrien smiled politely, too tired to even follow all the overlapping comments. After a couple minutes, he took the baby bag from Marinette and said, “Thanks, everyone, but I need to go drop him off at the daycare. It’s almost time for class.”

While Rose, Juleka, and Mylène stuck around to talk to Marinette more, most of the crowd had gotten their fill of pics and baby news, and Adrien was able to head to the daycare room in peace. When he got there, he found a woman who introduced herself as Nurse Janine and gave him the form for enrolling Louis in the daycare.

Filling the form out was a surprisingly emotional experience—his first official duty as Louis’s father and legal guardian. And while most of the information he wrote was stuff he’d already seen on the birth certificate, this was his first time actually writing it himself.

_Child’s name: Louis Agreste._

_Parent(s) enrolled at Françoise Dupont High School: Adrien Agreste and Marinette Dupain-Cheng._

He forgot to breathe for half a minute after filling in the first two lines. Then Louis made a sound, and Adrien moved on to birth date, emergency contact information, and the rest.

When he looked up to hand the paper back to Nurse Janine, there was a kind, knowing smile on her face. “We’ll take good care of him,” she said.

“Thank you.”

“You can go ahead and place him in that crib over there, and I’ll be over in a moment.”

Adrien went over to the crib she’d indicated and set the baby bag down. As he was working to get Louis out of the baby sling, he heard the door open behind him.

“Good morning, Nurse Janine,” said the newcomer.

“Good morning, Nathaniel,” she answered. “How are the twins?”

“Aleron was being extra fussy last night, but he doesn’t look like there’s anything wrong with him.”

“I’ll keep an eye on him.” Nurse Janine noticed Adrien looking over and told him, “We’ve got a pediatrician on call in case any of the babies get sick. Free of charge, of course.”

“That’s good to know,” Adrien said, mildly curious if ‘free of charge’ meant the school or some donor had paid for it or if the doctor was donating their time. There’d been a lot of volunteering and donating going on to help those involved in this mess, so it could have been either or some combination of both.

Nathaniel walked over to the crib next to Adrien. The boys had grown big enough that Nathaniel’d had to get a new baby sling, but they were still only about the size that Louis was, despite being a few weeks older. Though that made sense, given that they were conceived on the same day. “Hi, Adrien,” said Nathaniel. “Hi, Louis.”

Louis ignored him.

Adrien laid his son in the crib. “Hi, Nathaniel.” He decided to wait and walk to class with Nathaniel, now that he was here.

“How was the first night?” Nathaniel asked as he got his boys into their own crib.

“I’ve never been so exhausted.”

Nathaniel huffed softly. “Yeah.”

“I actually really enjoy feeding him, though. I mean, I’m not happy that Marinette feels uncomfortable about the idea of feeding him herself, but I am kinda glad that at least it lets me be more involved in it.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s good to look on the bright side. I’d rather things be like they are now than feel like I’m just sitting on the sideline with nothing to do and no way to help. Have you had any problems?”

Adrien thought about it. “Nothing big. Although . . . ” He was a little embarrassed to say, though Nathaniel would probably understand. Unless this wasn’t a normal thing. “He kind of . . . keeps peeing on me when I’m changing his diaper.”

Nathaniel laughed, reached into his own baby bag, and handed Adrien something. “This should help.”

Adrien examined the small cone of fabric before it occurred to him what it was for. “Hah! That’s clever.” _Simple solution for a simple problem._ “Know any other dad hacks?”

“A few,” Nathaniel said, a bit bashful about it. “I think we should all help each other figure this stuff out.”

“Definitely,” Adrien agreed.

When they got back to class a few minutes before the bell, everyone else was already there, and Marinette was the center of attention. She was sitting in her seat, and the rest of the class was gathered around, listening intently and throwing out questions. Even Sabrina and Chloe were clearly paying attention (and trying to pretend they weren’t) from their own seats.

Nathaniel moved up the side aisle to his desk, and Adrien stood in the doorway, not wanting to take attention away from Marinette. She was telling the story of the night she gave birth, repeating the sleepwalking version that they’d come up with. Max interjected with the probability of someone with no history of sleepwalking suddenly sleepwalking all the way out into the street, but Rose shushed him quickly, and no one else questioned this version of the story. (Nino and Alya exchanged a subtle eye roll, but Adrien had to wonder if they would have bought it too, if they hadn’t known the truth. They had bought an awful lot of his and Marinette’s past excuses, after all.)

“And Adrien was right there by my side the whole time,” Marinette said. “He was amazing.”

A few of the girls squealed.

Adrien stepped forward. “No, you were amazing.”

Marinette blushed. “I didn’t have much of a choice about it. You did.”

“Like I would have left you, Mi—” He cleared his throat, catching himself. From the corner of his eye, he caught Alya’s smirk. “Like I would have left you alone at a time like that.”

“Adrien,” Kim said, his gaze intense. “How bad was it? Was it horrifying?”

Adrien squinted, trying to figure out what Kim meant. When he did, he stammered and rubbed at the back of his neck. “No, I—I didn’t look—I mean, I didn’t _watch_ —”

Nino came to his rescue. “Dude, Kim, do you _want_ to see that? I know I don’t.” He looked behind him to add, “No offense, babe.”

“ _I_ don’t want to see it, either,” Alya said. “I really don’t understand the women who want that stuff recorded.” She shifted her attention to Marinette. “Seriously, though, how much did it hurt?”

Marinette glanced at Alya and Chloe, who were both watching her with curiosity and fear.

Adrien could tell she didn’t want to give them bad news, so he took another step toward the group, until he was standing in front of his desk. “She’d probably rather not think about that, guys. And I’m sure that’s something that varies based on all kinds of factors.”

Maybe Miss Bustier picked up on Marinette and Adrien not being super into this conversation anymore, because she said from her place behind her desk, “It’s almost time for class. Please go to your seats, everyone.”

Adrien appreciated it, but there was one thing they probably ought to get out of the way as soon as possible. He didn’t want to try to pretend not to be with Marinette, and a few of the others already knew anyway. “Um, if we could have just a minute, Miss Bustier, Marinette and I do have one other thing to share.” He raised an eyebrow at Marinette to make sure she was on board, and she gave him a shy nod.

 _What does she have to be shy about?_ he wondered. _Everyone is already on her side. I’m the one who should feel embarrassed about how long this took._

“Certainly, Adrien,” Miss Bustier said as the rest of the class found their seats.

Marinette got up and stood next to him, facing the class.

With all of them watching, he suddenly did feel nervous. Would they keep it private or post it to social media immediately? Would they congratulate them or tease them?

He took Marinette’s hand. “So, um—”

“Ugh!” The disgusted exclamation came from Chloe. “Seriously, Adrien?! You don’t have to marry her just because you had a baby with her!”

Adrien’s head snapped to his childhood friend in shock. “What?”

Chloe waved toward his and Marinette’s joined hands. “That’s what you’re telling us, right? You two are a _thing_ now?” She sounded positively revolted by the development.

Marinette glowered at her. “Thanks for ruining the moment, Chloe.”

Chloe gave Marinette a sickly sweet smile. “My pleasure.”

As the rest of the class broke out in a round of cheers, squeals, and applause, Adrien scowled at his pregnant friend. “You don’t have to be nasty about it, Chloe.”

“How should I be?”

“You could try being happy for me. We’re friends, right?”

“Of course, Adrikins. That’s why it makes me sick to see you entrapped by some peasant like her. She’s taking advantage of your gentlemanly nature to fulfill her weird, fangirlish fantasies.”

Beside him, Marinette was actually growling. Adrien squeezed her hand, trying to calm her down. “Chloe, she didn’t entrap me, and I’m not with her just to be a gentleman. I really love Marinette.”

“Oh?” Chloe raised an eyebrow. “Since when? Because last week you were still talking about what a good _friend_ she was.”

Adrien felt himself blush in embarrassment. When he glanced at others around the room, he could tell they were as curious about the suddenness of the development as she was. Even though Chloe was asking about it as confrontationally as possible, he knew she really was concerned for him. But this was going to be hard to explain without being able to tell the part where he found out Marinette was the girl he already loved. They could tell Max and Kim about it later, but not everyone. Even Chloe was only Queen Bee because Ladybug had lost a Miraculous once, so Adrien didn’t think Marinette would want to bring her in again, and the way Chloe was acting now wasn’t helping her chances.

He cleared his throat, stalling for time. “Give me a break, Chloe. I’m a fifteen-year-old boy who’s been homeschooled most of his life, and I’ve never had a girlfriend before. It took me a while to figure out what I was feeling. Yes, I thought I only liked Marinette as a friend. But when some . . . pertinent facts came out while she was having our baby”—he would let everyone infer that Marinette had confessed to him—“everything kind of clicked, and I realized that I’ve actually been in love with her for a while. So I appreciate your concern, but I really am sure about this, and this really is what I want.”

The class cheered again, and Marinette hugged his arm. Chloe eyed him and Marinette for several more seconds, then crossed her arms and huffed. “Fine. If you’re really sure, I guess I have to accept it.” She pierced Marinette with a glare sharp enough to sting. “You’d better treat him right, Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Or you’ll answer to me.”

When Adrien looked down at Marinette, he was surprised to find her smiling at his prickly friend. “Don’t worry, Chloe. He’s safe with me.”


	85. Chapter 85

When the first break between classes came, Marinette hastily excused herself to the daycare room. She met the nurse and checked on Louis, then pulled her pump out of the baby bag that Adrien had left by Louis’s crib. Nurse Janine showed her to one of the rooms they’d set up—more like cubicles, really, but they were private enough—at one end of the daycare. By the time Marinette was done pumping, she was already two minutes late for class.

She came out of the cubicle with her hands full of pumping supplies, in such a hurry that she nearly dropped them. “Where’s a sink?” she asked. “I’m late for class, and I still have to clean these!”

“Calm down,” Nurse Janine said soothingly, coming over to her. “I’ll get these cleaned for you so you can get back. You might want to put your name on all the pieces before tomorrow, so it’s easier for us to keep them organized once other mothers start needing to use the pumping rooms.”

“You’ll clean them for me?” Marinette asked. Things were pretty quiet in the room for now, with only three babies to care for, and there was one other staff member working on something at the desk.

Nurse Janine took the pumping things from her. “Yes, and we’ll bring in more people as necessary to make sure you new parents are as free to focus on your studies as possible while you’re here. So don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of this. Where is the milk?”

Marinette went back into the pumping room and came back with two bottles.

“You’ll want to put your name or your baby’s name on those, too, but it’s fine for now. Though I’d also recommend tape with the date and time marked on them, just as a general practice.” With her hands full, Nurse Janine nodded toward a small refrigerator. “Go ahead and put the milk in there. We’ll use it for Louis. You can keep coming in whenever you need to, and any milk that’s not used by the end of the day, you can take home with you.”

Marinette was about to say thanks and leave, but when she put the bottles in the fridge, she saw that there were only a few others in there. “Is that for the twins?” she asked.

“Yes,” Nurse Janine answered.

“Is that enough for them for the whole day?”

“We usually have to supplement with formula.”

Marinette knew she already had a little extra milk at home. “I’ll come in during breaks and lunch as I need to, and you can use the milk I pump for Louis, but if there’s any extra and the twins run out, use mine for them, okay?”

Nurse Janine looked pleasantly surprised. “I’ll have to check with their parent—”

“He’ll say yes. We’re friends, and I want to help. Alix already did the same for Louis.”

“That’s very generous.”

Marinette glanced at the clock and yelped. “I need to get back!”

School was pretty hectic for the rest of the day. Marinette had to pump at least every other break break, which meant she hardly got to talk with her friends, though by the afternoon, Alya had started coming with her to keep her company. Adrien napped in the nurse’s office for almost their whole lunch break, so she didn’t really get to spend any time with him, either. At least she had half her lunch break to hang out in the cafeteria with her friends and pretend like things were normal for a little while.

By the time they’d picked Louis up at the end of school and were heading through the courtyard, Marinette was seriously looking forward to being home. Her parents had volunteered to watch Louis while she and Adrien somehow tried to get their homework done before it was time for dinner.

Footsteps approached behind them at a fast walk, which wasn’t at all unusual for the end of the school day, so she was surprised when Nathaniel called out, “Hey, Marinette!”

She turned to watch as he caught up, fully loaded up with babies and bags.

“Nurse Janine told me what you did for my sons,” Nathaniel said, blushing faintly. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.”

Marinette found a free spot on his shoulder to lay her hand. “I know, but I wanted to. I’m happy to help my friends, and Alix helped me out first.”

From the expression on Adrien’s face, he probably guessed what they were talking about. He adjusted Louis’s baby sling and asked, “Are you doing okay with all this by yourself?”

Nathaniel smiled. “I’m not by myself.”

Juleka jogged over to them from the locker room. “Sorry I’m late. Ready to go?” She spotted Marinette and Adrien. “My turn to help with the babies tonight. Those kids can sure scream when they want to, but they’re really cute.”

“See you guys later,” Nathaniel said as he and Juleka waved and headed off.

After Marinette and Adrien got home and got Louis settled in with his grandma, Marinette dropped her school bag on the floor and fell into her desk chair, wanting to melt right into it. “Can we not do homework and just sleep instead? The teachers wouldn’t fail us, would they?”

Adrien dropped his own bag and sat on the chaise, looking just as tired, but he didn’t melt into the furniture. “Probably not, but we need to try.” He dug through his bag to get his homework out and laid it on the foot of the chaise, then he took a selfie with it.

“What are you doing?” Marinette asked.

As he posted the photo, he answered, “I’ve somehow become a role model. People listened when I said we should all pull together, and now a lot of people—especially people our age—are looking to me like I’m some example of how they should all behave. So it’s kind of my responsibility now to push through and keep doing my homework even though I have a baby and I’m dead on my feet.”

Marinette sighed and smiled at him. So responsible, even when he didn’t ask for the responsibility. Just like with his Miraculous. Just like with Louis. “I love you,” she murmured.

He looked up in surprise, then gave her a gentle, tired smile in return. “I love you, too. Maybe we should go down to the kitchen table to do our homework so we don’t fall asleep.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” she agreed. “And I need to go to the bathroom before we start.” Having a baby was unbelievably messy.

They managed to get all their homework done and got through dinner without falling asleep in their food. After they got ready for bed, Marinette did another round of pumping while Adrien got Louis put to bed.

“Tikki,” she breathed, already close to falling asleep despite the repetitive tugging on her nipples, “wake me up every few hours, could you, if Adrien and Louis are up?”

Tikki nodded sympathetically, but from the other side of the screens, Adrien asked, “Why?”

“Because I felt like I was about to pop this morning.”

There was an awkward silence, and then he said, “I guess I can’t do everything to help you sleep. Sorry.”

“Don’t be. You’re helping so much. If I had to actually get up to take care of Louis at night, I probably wouldn’t be getting any sleep at all. At least this way I’ll still get some.”

There were a few minutes where neither of them spoke, but she heard Adrien moving around quietly.

Marinette held up her hand, and Tikki settled onto it. She snuggled her kwami against her cheek and sighed. “I’m beginning to think we were right about needing to give up our Miraculouses after Louis was born and too optimistic to think we could try to hurry and defeat Hawk Moth.”

“Don’t be hasty,” Adrien said, sounding alarmed. “I know it’s rough now, but we’ll have a nanny soon. Nathalie set up interviews for tomorrow after school. All we have to do is find one we like, and they can start right away. Then we can both get a lot more sleep at night, and things won’t look so bad.”

Plagg flew around the screen, startling a yelp out of Marinette and a loud rebuke out of Adrien, but the black kwami didn’t even glance at Marinette’s embarrassing position. He flew right up to her face and said, “I’m not giving up my owner that easily. Tikki, talk some sense into her.”

“She’s just being realistic,” Tikki told him. “But Adrien’s right, Marinette. Don’t try to make any decisions now just because you’re tired and worn-out. Wait until you get the nanny and get into your own house. Then you can see what the long-term situation will really be like, and you’ll be able to better judge if you can still keep being Ladybug while you have a baby. I really hope we can all work something out together, of course, but I’m sure you’ll make the right decision, whatever it is, once you get all the information and think things through rationally.”

Marinette nodded, her embarrassment at being seen by Plagg fading in the face of his total lack of interest in her predicament. She reminded herself that he wasn’t human or even a biological being, and even his being male was more a matter of impressions rather than fact. “You guys are right. I have to think that it’ll get better. I don’t want to give you up, either—or being Ladybug. But things are going to be really rough if Hawk Moth akumatizes someone in the next day or two.”

She should have known not to say something like that. At near midnight, when she was sitting up pumping and trying not to fall asleep, and Adrien was walking around and trying to burp Louis after feeding him, Marinette’s phone rang. Tikki carried it down from the bed to her.

“It’s Luka,” Marinette said, reading the screen. Surprise at a late-night call from him shot a little energy into her.

“Better answer it,” said Adrien.

She did so. “Hello? Luka? What’s up?”

“Did I wake you?” he asked.

“Unfortunately, no.”

“Sorry about this, but I’m up on deck (I was working on a new song), and I just saw what looks like a sea monster.”

Marinette groaned. “Someone got akumatized.”

Behind the screens, Adrien let out a similar groan. “Don’t supervillains need sleep, too?”

“Looks like.” Luka’s voice suddenly became urgent. “Crap, it’s turning around. I gotta transform.” Footsteps and rustling came over the line, then the sound of his transformation. “I’ll stay with it. Do you want me to call the others or—”

“We’ll handle it,” Marinette said.

“We might be able to fight this one on our own, if you can’t—”

“No, we’re coming,” she said, turning off the pump and getting free of it. “We’ll meet up as soon as we can.” The call ended, and she got herself situated as quickly as possible. “Can you put Louis back to sleep?” she asked Adrien.

“Working on it.”

She pulled the screen away to find Adrien bending over the crib, making soft sounds at Louis.

“Is it okay to leave him here?” she asked.

“He’s sleeping now,” Adrien answered. “I don’t like it, but I think it should be okay. Other people put their babies in their own rooms while they sleep, and we shouldn’t be gone long. Unless you want me to stay here. Or you could stay here and we could swap Miraculouses.”

Marinette bit her lip, deciding. Letting Adrien play Mister Bug was tempting, but she thought Louis would probably be okay for the short time it should take them to defeat one villain. She didn’t want to be an overly paranoid parent. “No, we’ll both go, but if it takes very long, we may need to have one of us come back.”

Adrien was standing beside the chaise longue with his phone in his hand. “No akuma alert. It must be quiet enough that it’s not waking people yet.”

“Which means the others might not have found out.” She quickly dialed Nino’s number.

When he picked up, he sounded groggy. “Marinette? Everything okay?”

“Sea monster in the Seine,” she said, trying not to waste a moment. “Call Max and Kim, and everyone meet up at Viperion’s location.”

His next words sounded much more awake. “Roger that.”

Marinette hung up and shared a look with Adrien. “Okay, let’s go.”

Adrien grinned. “You go first.”

She wasn’t sure why he’d said it, but she didn’t have time to sit around and wait. “Tikki, spots on.” In a flash of pink light, she became Ladybug.

Adrien’s eyes were as wide as his smile. “You’re so cool.”

She rolled her eyes at him, but she could feel the blush in her cheeks. “We need to go. Your turn.”

“Can I just do one thing first?”

She raised an eyebrow at him, too curious to say no.

He walked over to her, put his hands on her waist, and kissed her lips.

Her heart jumped and threatened to beat right out of her chest. He was so warm, and his lips were so soft, and she loved him so incredibly much . . .

Adrien pulled away, smiling at her. “I’ve wanted to do that for so long.”

Ladybug blushed and pushed him away. “Hurry up.”

“Claws out.” A flash of green light lit the room, and Cat Noir stood in front of her. Before she could react, he darted in to kiss her again, barely more than a peck this time, before smirking at her with a smug gleam in his eye. “I finally gotcha.”

For some reason, she blushed even hotter than before. Maybe it was because she hadn’t actually seen Adrien as Cat Noir since finding out who he was, and because of the fact that even though she’d agreed to marry him, actually wanting to let her partner kiss her was still kind of a new thing. “You’re such a weirdo,” she said, deflecting, as she got onto her bed and opened the hatch.

“But I’m _your_ weirdo, Milady.”

“Don’t you forget it.”

#

As his magical link with his champion broke, Hawk Moth’s lips curled, baring his teeth. “You may have defeated my kraken, Ladybug, but my next monster won’t be so tame.”

It had been against his better judgment to akumatize someone so late at night less than a week after the last time, but the choice had paid off in the end. Oh, he’d failed to acquire any Miraculouses, but he’d acquired some useful knowledge instead.

Ladybug was back. Really back, not simply giving orders from the rear anymore. She may not have been up to her usual standards as far as physical ability went, but she was definitely back in the fight. What was more, she looked different than she had in the last fight. He knew from his son’s birth that a pregnant woman did not instantly look normal again once the baby was out, but there was definitely a noticeable difference in the size of Ladybug’s belly. Between that and the degree to which she was once again putting herself into the line of fire, it could only mean one thing: she’d given birth.

Which meant that Hawk Moth could press the attack as hard as he wanted to now, without guilt or fear of what Adrien or Emilie would say about his sending champions to fight a pregnant girl. He detransformed and entered the elevator to his atelier, already planning what his next move might be, now that he could remove this self-imposed shackles.

Gabriel made a note to have Nathalie obtain a list of all women who had given birth this week. It would be a much longer list than any normal week, but it would still narrow the possibilities of Ladybug’s identity considerably. And if he could find that out . . . then he had a whole arsenal of other weapons he could use against her.


	86. Chapter 86

It was embarrassing to admit, but Max didn’t realize they were having a team meeting at first because he was already starting on their assignment.

Miss Bustier was out today—currently in labor at the hospital, according to their substitute teacher—so since it was a Friday anyway, they were mostly using their time in homeroom classes as study hall. Max had been making notes for a computer program he was working on from his seat near the back of the room, so he hadn’t really been paying attention when Alya had convinced the substitute that they always split into two groups to do study hall, with one staying in class and the other going to the library. He’d vaguely heard Chloe arguing back, but then Nino and some others had joined in, and somehow it had ended up with Max sitting in the classroom with Alya, Nino, Kim, Marinette, and Adrien—alone, because even the teacher had left for some reason.

Max had been paying attention enough to hear that they were supposed to be working on a report for History that was due in two weeks, so he’d gotten out his things to multi-task on that while he kept working on his programming. Almost immediately, Marinette and Adrien had said they needed to use the restrooms before they got started, and they’d left.

After a minute or two of random chatter, Kim had asked, “So, is this a team meeting, or what?” and Max raised his head from his work to really see the others in the room.

“What makes you think that?” Nino asked.

“Well, Alya was trying really hard to get everyone else out,” Kim said, “so I figured, since she doesn’t have her Miraculous right now, maybe she needed to have a meeting and this was the only way to get us all together.”

Alya held up her phone. “I have all your numbers, Kim. If I wanted to get everyone together, I could just text you.”

“So, this _is_ just study hall?” Kim asked.

The door opened, and Luka came in. “Hey, guys.”

Kim, who had been momentarily unsure, pointed at Luka. “I was right!”

Luka raised an eyebrow at Kim, then at Alya and Nino. Nino shrugged. Luka sat in Chloe’s seat, turned with his legs in the aisle so he could see everyone.

The facts definitely indicated that Kim was most likely correct. But Max didn’t like jumping to conclusions, so he asked Luka, “Why are you here, Luka?”

Luka’s gaze flitted uncertainly between the four of them before answering. “For the team meeting.”

“Hah!” Kim shouted.

“Would you at least keep it down?” Alya hissed. “These walls aren’t soundproof.”

Kim crossed his arms and sat back, looking very pleased with himself. “So, now that everyone’s here, what’s this meeting about?”

“Everyone’s not here yet,” said Nino.

Kim looked around, counting under his breath. “Yeah, we are.”

Alya asked him, “Aren’t you forgetting someone?”

“Is Ladybug planning to let Chloe back on the team?” Max asked.

Alya shook her head. “Someone else. Aren’t there couple important people on _Ladybug’s_ team who aren’t here?”

Kim scoffed. “Okay, but it’s not like Ladybug and Cat Noir go to our school.”

“Oh, don’t they?” Alya asked with a sly grin.

Max pulled out his calculator. “The odds of both Ladybug and Cat Noir attending our school are one in seventy-eight-thousand-five-hundred-and-eighty-six.”

Luka said softly, “Not everything can be figured out with math, Max.”

Before Max could ask him what he meant, the door opened again, and Marinette and Adrien came back.

“Someone probably should have locked the door,” Max whispered, low enough that only Kim could hear.

“So much for a team meeting,” Kim whispered back.

“Oh, hey, Luka,” Marinette said cheerily as she and Adrien took their seats. “What are you doing here?”

Instead of coming up with an excuse, Luka smiled and shook his head at her.

Adrien closed the door and locked it behind him.

Max was not terribly good with reading people—he was much better with numbers—but an idea sprang into his head that had him typing furiously on his calculator. Sure, the odds were incredibly low that any random two people would be students at their school, but once he factored in a number of variables . . . _They seem to be about our age . . . Assuming hair color, height, and apparent ethnicity don’t change when they transform . . . Take into account how quickly they both arrive whenever someone gets akumatizes at school . . . and if they’d both been lying about using my Miraculous to reach the Startrain when Mom got akumatized . . ._

Max gasped, staring at the number on his calculator. Then his head snapped up, and he gaped at Marinette and Adrien. “It’s you.”

“Huh?” Kim said.

Max pointed. “They’re Ladybug and Cat Noir.” In the one case, it seemed like something Max should have already figured out. Despite her clumsiness, Marinette was exactly the same type of person Ladybug was—strong, brave, always standing up for others. In the other case, though, it was going to take some time for Max to wrap his head around the idea. Cat Noir was a brash flirt who made bad jokes at inappropriate times, nothing whatsoever like Adrien. But the numbers didn’t lie.

The two classmates in question smiled. Their smiles looked far more cheeky than Max was used to seeing on those faces, especially Adrien’s.

Kim gaped like a fish, letting out the longest gasp Max had ever heard. That boy had some serious lung capacity.

Nino and Alya started snickering, followed by Marinette and Adrien. Eventually even Luka was chuckling.

Max frowned. “Did everyone know but us?”

Nino waved his hands. “Not for long.”

“We’ve only known a little while,” said Alya, “and only because we figured it out on our own. We didn’t even tell these two we knew until we went to see their baby.”

Adrien chimed in. “Because that was the night that Marinette and I found out about each other.”

Max found that hard to believe. “You two have been superhero partners for, what, almost two years? You’ve gone through a pregnancy together, and you’ve _lived_ together for months, and you _just_ found out?”

“When you say it like that, it makes us sound pretty oblivious,” Adrien complained.

“Whoa!” Kim blurted, his brain catching up. “So we all know each other? That is awesome, guys!”

“Inside voice, Kim,” Alya reminded him.

Marinette smiled up at them. “You weren’t picked for a Miraculous just because you were the most convenient person, Max. It was because I know you and knew you’d do a good job. Just like I did with Nino, Alya, and Luka.”

An intense swell of pride filled Max’s chest. He _had_ assumed that he’d been given his Miraculous the first time out of convenience and necessity. It meant a lot to know that Ladybug had chosen him because she actually believed in him as a person.

“What about me?” Kim asked.

Adrien turned around even more in his seat, folding one leg up against the seat back. “You were picked by the same person who picked Marinette and me. But that’s . . . probably still a secret. Only she and I know about that, and even us finding out didn’t happen right away.”

Kim nodded as if that made perfect sense. “That’s like level five clearance stuff. Got it.”

“But Ladybug always stressed the importance of secrecy,” Max said to Marinette. “She—you—seemed pretty upset when you found out we all knew about each other. Am I correct in assuming you arranged this team meeting to reveal your identities to us?”

Marinette nodded. “That’s right.”

“But why?”

Marinette and Adrien exchanged a look before Marinette answered. “I’ve changed my mind about that. We were told secrecy was important, but with what I know now, after finding out that Adrien was Cat Noir the whole time, I think that was a mistake in this case. And most of the rest of the team already knew about each other, anyway. Even if some people would say it’s a mistake to all know each other’s identities, I’m willing to bet that, for our team, in our situation, it’s not. I think we’ll be stronger together, especially since we all already know each other and work well together outside of the masks.”

Kim pumped his fist in agreement. “That’s awesome, Lady—uh, Marinette. We’ll be an even better team now than before.”

Marinette winced. “Kim, you really can’t slip up like that around other people, though. It’s still _critical_ that no one outside of the team finds out about us. If Hawk Moth ever found out, it could be disastrous.”

Kim put his hands over his mouth and said something, but it was muffled by his hands.

“We can’t hear you, Kim,” Max told him.

Kim lowered his hands. “My lips are sealed, Marinette.”

“And we need to do all we can to help each other not get akumatized,” she said. “Like what happened that time when Nino and Alya stepped in when Max almost got akumatized again.” Max gritted his teeth at the reminder; he’d done a lot better at not letting things get to him since then, though. “That’s exactly the kind of thing we need to all do for each other. Hawk Moth wants the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses the most, but he’s shown that he’s eager to get his hands on any of them that he can.”

“You can count on us, L—Marinette!” Kim stood and saluted.

“Don’t act weird around me, Kim!” she shot back.

He fell into his chair. “Right. Sorry.” His phone buzzed. As soon as he checked it, he bolted to his feet again. “It’s time! I have to go!”

“Time?” Max asked as Kim scrambled to collect his things.

“Ondine’s in labor!”

“Then hurry!” Alya urged. “We’ll tell the teacher why you’re out.”

“Thanks!” Kim started running down the steps.

“Is she going to the hospital?” Marinette asked.

Kim paused, jogging in place anxiously. “Not unless there’s a problem. She wants to a home water birth in a big inflatable kiddie pool!”

After Kim sprinted from the room, Adrien chuckled. “Of course she does. Well, I guess that’s meeting adjourned.”

#

After school, Adrien and Marinette dropped Louis off with Tom and Sabine, then Adrien’s bodyguard picked them up in the sedan. They picked up Nino, Alya, and Nathaniel on the way, and headed to the Gabriel building. Nathalie met them at the entrance and led them to the room where they’d be holding the nanny interviews. After she got Alix on a video call on her tablet and the tablet set up in a stand on the table, Nathalie headed for the door.

“Aren’t you doing to stay?” Adrien asked her. “You’ll be living there, too, and the nanny will be caring for your son as well, won’t they?”

Nathalie said, “I did the first round of applicant screening. I’m certain that any of the candidates would be acceptable.”

“You don’t have a preference?” Marinette asked.

Nathalie hesitated. “I’m certain any choice you make will be fine.” She left before they could ask her more.

Adrien looked along the table at his friends. “You guys are all okay with Nathalie living in the house with us, right? I agreed to let her before I invited any of you, but I don’t want anything to be awkward.”

Nino shrugged. “The lady’s a little stiff, but she seems all right.”

“Yeah,” said Alya. “And if your dad isn’t interested in her even when she’s having his child, I think it’s great that you’re picking up the slack on giving her a supportive place to live.”

Marinette added, “And it’ll be better for your brother to have a bunch of friends his age and people to look after him instead of being alone with a single mom.”

Nathaniel nodded his agreement. Alix gave a thumbs-up from her hospital room.

Adrien smiled. “That’s a relief. I’m glad we’re all on the same page.”

A minute later, Nathalie escorted in the first applicant.

Adrien hadn’t actually seen the resumés of the applicants beforehand. Things like work history, education, and references, he’d assumed were part of what Nathalie and his father made sure were good before they got to this point, and Adrien wouldn’t really have known what to look for, anyway. This final interview process was mostly to see how the applicants got along with the people who’d be living in the house. Technically, Adrien had the final say on who was hired, but he’d assured them that he’d only choose someone they were unanimous on.

The first four candidates who came in were diverse enough to please any modern personnel office while simultaneously being painfully uniform. They represented a variety of ethnicities (including two from entirely different continents, whose French was accented but understandable) and ranged from rail thin to extremely well-padded, but every single one of them was a middle-aged or older woman with a serious demeanor and wore her hair either very short or tied back in a severe bun. Clearly, Gabriel Agreste had a very specific idea about what a nanny should be like.

After the fourth one left and Nathalie went to bring in the last, Adrien looked down the table at his friends. Judging by their faces, they were as disappointed in the offerings as he was. He asked, without much optimism, “Any we like so far?”

Alya was the first to answer. “I don’t want be mean, Adrien, but these aren’t exactly the kind of nanny I was picturing.”

“Yeah, dude,” Nino said apologetically. “They look like they’d smack a kid with a ruler for chewing gum.”

“Let’s not stereotype,” said Marinette. “But . . . they do seem pretty stern.”

Adrien sighed. “Yeah. I should have known Father would pick people like that. We don’t have to choose any of them today. I can always tell him we need another round of candidates and give him some requests for what we’re looking for. I don’t think he’d force one on us that we don’t want.”

Marinette leaned against his shoulder. “But I’m so tired. I was so looking forward to someone watching the baby at night.”

“Me, too,” he admitted, silently praying that this last candidate would be better than the others.

The door opened, and the final candidate came in. She was an older woman like the rest, but her hair—mostly grey with a few strands of black—was cut in a fluffy bob with bangs. She had fair skin and bright blue eyes with deep laugh lines at the corners. As she walked in and took the seat opposite the group, she smiled cheerfully. “Hello, dears! I’m Geneviève. It’s so lovely to meet you.”

As the door swung closed behind her, a faint groan floated through.

Adrien didn’t realize how much he’d started slouching until his interest in the new candidate made him sit up. Just with the friendly greeting, she was already way ahead of the others. “Hi! I’m Adrien. This is my fiancée, Marinette, and our friends, Nino, Alya, Nathaniel, and Alix.”

They spent a few minutes on pleasantries (something the other candidates had only reluctantly participated in) and they told Geneviève about themselves, their relationships with each other, and their babies. She expressed genuine sympathy for the situation they were in (definitely something the others had only done in an official, obligatory kind of way) and praised them for how well she thought they were doing under difficult circumstances.

“Tell us about yourself,” Adrien said. “Are you married? Do you have kids?” He hadn’t actually gotten to the point of asking any of the others this. He suspected it might not be the kind of thing one was supposed to ask in a job interview, possibly even one like this, and the other candidates had been so strictly professional that he’d been afraid to upset them by asking. But he had the feeling Geneviève would take it in stride.

As she did. “My husband passed away ten years ago, and I don’t have any interest in finding another man at my age. I have three grown children: two sons and a daughter.”

“Any grandchildren?” Alya asked.

“Two—eight and twelve—with another on the way.”

“So you like kids?” Adrien asked.

“Oh, yes, of course! Who doesn’t like kids?”

Under his breath, Nino muttered, “The last four ladies, probably.” Alya elbowed him.

Geneviève talked about kids and taking care of them and her general approach to raising them, and it all sounded good as far as Adrien knew. By this time in the interview, the others had all volunteered their education and work history, but Geneviève hadn’t, even though she’d talked about enough individual kids that she had to have expanded outside her own and her grandkids.

“So, what kind of experience do you have as a nanny?” Adrien asked.

“I’ve worked for three families over forty years,” she said. “I’ve looked after twelve different children in that time, not counting my own. I’m proud to say they’ve all become wonderful adults, or at least young adults; the youngest is currently sixteen.”

There was one point that Adrien had never gotten around to with the others, but he thought it was important for anyone living in their house. “Obviously you know who my father is. Are you familiar with my, uh . . . ” How was he supposed to say this without sounding arrogant? “ . . . social visibility?”

When Geneviève appeared confused, Alya said, “Our boy’s famous. You know that, right?”

Geneviève laughed. “Oh, yes, I’m aware that Adrien’s popular with the young people. In fact, I’ve caught myself up on his appearances and postings over the past year, and I have to say that I can see why Mr. Agreste is so proud of him.”

Adrien flushed at the praise. “Thank you. Is . . . is any of that going to be a problem for you? We might get reporters or other people wanting photos and stuff at bad times.”

“It’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before. All the families I’ve worked for have been high-profile in some way.”

That was reassuring, but of course he should have figured his father would make sure to choose people who could handle that aspect of their lives. He glanced at the others. “Anyone have anything else you want to ask?”

Everyone else had at least one or two things to ask her about, so they kept talking for another twenty minutes. By the end of it, Adrien was sure how he felt about her, but he needed to confer with the rest of the group first.

They thanked Geneviève for coming and shook her hand. When she got up to leave, Adrien told her, “Don’t go too far, okay?”

The vote was unanimous.

Less than a minute later, Adrien got up to open the door and found Geneviève and Nathalie standing in the hall. “Could you come back in?”

This time, Nathalie came in as well, standing near the door as Adrien delivered the news.

“We’d love to have you as our nanny, Geneviève. The job’s yours if you want it.”

Geneviève beamed and thanked them. To Adrien’s surprise, Nathalie was smiling at the news as well.

“When would you like me to start?” Geneviève asked.

“Tomorrow, I guess?” Adrien looked to Nathalie, but she didn’t have anything to say about it. “If that’s not too early. We’re not set up in the new house yet, so we’ll have to find a place for you to stay at Marinette’s parents’ house. If that’s all right.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, dears,” Geneviève assured them. “I don’t require much, and I’m sure my Nathalie will sort everything out that needs to be sorted.”

With raised eyebrows, Adrien looked to his father’s assistant, who suddenly appeared distinctly embarrassed. It was a very strange look for her. “ _Your_ Nathalie?”

Geneviève winked. “Maybe I should introduce myself again.” She held out her hand. “Geneviève Sancoeur.”

“My mother,” Nathalie admitted.

“What?!” Adrien was so shocked, he ignored Geneviève’s hand. “But you’re so different.”

Geneviève laughed. “Yes, she takes after her father. I don’t think that man ever laughed a day in his life. He had a good heart, though.”

Adrien was still gaping at Nathalie. “Why didn’t you just tell us she was your mom? I would have picked her without wasting everyone’s time with this whole interview process.”

“I’m sorry, Adrien,” Nathalie said. “But that was exactly why we didn’t tell you. It was important for you to pick the person you thought best for you and your friends, without being swayed by my personal preferences.”

“What if we’d picked someone else? I would have felt terrible if I’d kept my little brother from knowing his grandmother better.”

“Your father would never have allowed the choice if it were purely for personal reasons.” Nathalie’s gaze slid to Marinette. “He really doesn’t engage in nepotistic hiring practices.”

Adrien found that hard to believe. “What about me?”

Nathalie smiled softly at him. “He wants you to work for him so much because he genuinely believes you’re the most magnificent boy in the world, Adrien.”

Adrien’s entire face felt like it was on fire. His father had never said anything like that to him. He’d always assumed his father wanted him to work just because he was convenient and it saved Gabriel the bother of finding someone else, and because Adrien could be a consistent ‘face of the brand’ without the threat of going off to some other company. The thought that his father wanted him to be the face of his brand because he actually thought he was that amazing had never entered his head.

Beside him, his friends were snickering. Marinette snuck her hand into his, interlacing their fingers. “He’s not wrong,” she said, which only made Adrien blush even harder. Then she had a little mercy on him by getting back to the previous topic. “And I think they were right about wanting to do the interviews anyway. Right, guys?”

The rest of their friends agreed. It still stressed Adrien out to think of what he might have taken from his little brother if he and the others had made the wrong choice, but at least it was over.

Now that he thought of it, though, it was weird that Geneviève’s personality was so different from the other four. Did that mean that Gabriel had only let her through this far because she was Nathalie’s mother, even though she wasn’t the type of person Gabriel wanted in the role? Or were the others chosen specifically to make Geneviève look like the obvious choice? It didn’t really matter, Adrien supposed, and he knew his father would never admit to anything if he asked, so there was no point thinking about it.

Adrien smiled and offered his hand again. “Well, then, welcome to the family, Geneviève.”


	87. Chapter 87

Apparently dreams really do come true, because Hawk Moth didn’t attack for an entire weekend.

Friday night was still rough, but on Saturday, Geneviève came over to Marinette’s house and got settled in. The nursery that Tom and Sabine had been making out of their spare room was basically finished, so they decided that until their daughter came, it could be used for Louis. Nathalie procured a comfortable air mattress small enough to fit in the available space, and Geneviève set up her things to stay in the nursery.

Saturday night, Louis slept in the nursery with Geneviève to take care of him when he woke, and Marinette and Adrien got more sleep than they had since he’d been born. Marinette still had to wake a few times to pump, which usually woke Adrien up, but it was still enough of an improvement that they felt ready to actually take on a supervillain fight the next day if they had to.

Luckily, they didn’t have to. Sunday progressed peacefully. Tom and Sabine worked in the bakery, Geneviève mostly stayed in the nursery napping or reading, and Adrien and Marinette played video games on the couch while Louis bounced in one of his little baby chairs nearby. Even though fighting games were their usual go-to genre, they decided to try a co-op puzzle platformer. Naturally, they were amazing at it and beat the whole game in an afternoon.

After Marinette pumped again and Adrien changed Louis’s diaper, they settled on the couch with the news on low volume. Adrien stretched out with Marinette’s back against his chest and Louis in her arms. “I want our life to be just like this from now on, okay?” he murmured sleepily.

She laughed lightly. “I do, too. But even once we defeat Hawk Moth, there’ll still be school and jobs and lots of other issues needing our attention.”

“Sure,” he concurred reluctantly, “but snuggling and video games as often as possible?”

“Agreed.”

His phone chimed. He was able to reach it without disturbing them too much, or else he would have ignored it for now. Swiping the screen, he saw that Kim had sent out a group text to all their friends with a photo of him, Ondine, and an adorable little baby wrapped in a pink blanket. Adrien smiled and showed it to Marinette.

“How cute!” She read the caption on the text. “ ‘I have a daughter! Meet Lê Fleur Romy.’ Oh, Romy’s a cute name.”

“Ondine looks so happy,” Adrien observed.

“I’m glad.” Marinette let out a little snort. “I still can’t believe that doofus is married.” Though Kim had tried to keep it secret at first, the rest of the class had found out a while back. “I wonder what this means for them now, though. Even if they’re technically married, they’re each still living with their parents, right? So the baby’s probably going to stay with Ondine? They probably won’t be able to be a real family until they’re out of high school and can get a place of their own.”

Adrien frowned. “You’re right. That sucks.” While Adrien wasn’t sure it would have been a good idea for Kim to live on his own with a baby, Ondine seemed pretty together, so the three of them could likely make it all right, given the chance. If Adrien had bought an even bigger house, they could have joined them, but they were pretty much at maximum capacity with the people already planning to live there. But maybe there was something that could be done. He dialed up Nathalie and explained Kim’s situation to her and asked if she had any ideas how they might help. She said she’d talk to his father about it, which was probably the best Adrien could ask.

When he hung up, Marinette said, “Thank you for doing so much for our friends caught in this mess. I wish there was more I could do to make up for . . . ” She trailed off before he had to rebuke her for blaming herself again.

“ _I_ can’t actually do that much. I’m just thrilled that Father’s actually helping them out when I ask him. I have no idea why he is, but I’m incredibly grateful.”

Marinette was quiet for a few minutes, but there was something about her silence that made Adrien think she was pondering something. Sure enough, eventually she said, “I wish we knew who Hawk Moth is and what he really wants. I wish we knew what he’s thinking. Why did he call off Fairy Grandmother when he did? Why not before, or why not wait until we eventually showed up? We would have, I think. After we regained consciousness, if she’d still been rampaging, we’d have pulled ourselves together long enough to go fight her. And he tried to get me to give up when he knew I was pregnant, then when I refused, the villains he created weren’t as vicious as they had been before. And where’s Mayura been? We haven’t seen any sentimonsters for months. Do you think she ended up pregnant, too? Do you think the two of them got caught in the gas together, and that’s why he didn’t stop it until he did? Is it even possible for him to be affected by the powers he gives his villains?”

“Those are . . . a lot of really good points,” Adrien said. He hadn’t considered most of them, at least not in any depth. “I never even thought about Mayura. But . . . it would make sense. If she did get pregnant because of Fairy Grandmother, then does that mean she’ll start fighting us again after her baby’s born?”

Another silence stretched between them until Marinette made a frustrated sound. “There’s no way to get answers about any of it. Not unless we managed to capture one or both of them and get the answers out of them directly. It’s so frustrating.”

Adrien rubbed her upper arms. “You’ve got enough to think about with the things you _can_ control. Try to focus on those.”

“I’m worried, Adrien. If Hawk Moth was holding back because of my pregnancy, then has he figured out yet that I’m not pregnant anymore? And what will he throw at us when he does? Even holding back, he’s ramped things up enough to keep our whole team busy. If he really starts pushing, will we be able to keep fighting him?”

“Of course we will. We’ve got an amazing team. And we’ll have Alya, too, once she’s ready. You could even call in the others or new people if you need to. I’m sure Master Fu would agree to let you hand out more Miraculouses if things got bad enough to need it.”

Marinette nodded, running her hand over Louis’s head and back. “You’re right. No matter what Hawk Moth throws at us, we’ll keep fighting. We have to. Our team is already strong, and there are a bunch more people we could call up if we need to. But we need to be ready for things to get harder.”

“I’ve got your back, Milady. We’ll be ready.”

#

Monday morning, Kim refused to allow class to start until every single person—even Chloe—had looked at every single photo of Romy that he had on his phone. There were at least a hundred.

Sure, she was a cute baby, but she wasn’t really doing anything, so a dozen or so would have sufficed. There were photos of her alone, her with Ondine, her with her various other family members who’d come to visit, and a bunch with her and Kim. Most of these were cute. Some were a little concerning.

“Kim,” Marinette said, looking at one where Kim was holding Romy in what looked like a precarious position, “you know she can’t actually swim yet, right?”

“I know!” he assured her before adding, “Now.”

Adrien leaned close enough to whisper to her, “I’m a little worried about Romy’s safety.”

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Marinette said, though she wasn’t quite as sure about it as she tried to sound. “Kim might be overly enthusiastic, but he obviously loves her a lot. He wouldn’t do anything actually risky.”

Miss Bustier had also had her baby, but she was still out, so they had a substitute again. When Sabrina let out a shriek and they all went to the windows to see water flooding the streets, the poor substitute only stared in horror.

The rest of Marinette’s team was watching her, waiting for her lead. They didn’t really need to—they’d been doing more or less fine on their own before now—but she instinctively jumped into action. “Everyone, to the library!” she shouted. It was the highest point in the school that she actually knew how to get to without superpowers.

Her command jolted the teacher into action. Taking the lead, he called out, “Students, this way!”

Marinette and her team stayed near the back of the group, herding the others toward the door. Alya was the last of the non-superheroes to leave. Before Nino shut the door, she gave him a nod which Marinette hoped meant she’d keep people moving and give some excuse for their absence to the rest of the group.

Kim rushed to the windows. “The city’s being flooded!”

“Think it’s Syren again?” Adrien asked.

Kim spun to them, horrified by the suggestion. “You mean Ondine? But she was fine when I left her this morning!”

“No time to think about that now!” Marinette said. “We need to get everyone onto the roof. If it _is_ Syren and things happen like they did last time, the roofs should be high enough to keep people safe. But first, does everyone have the power-ups I gave you?”

Thankfully, they did. They gave their kwamis the aqua power-ups that would give them flippers and the ability to breathe underwater—which made it tricky to walk, but they’d make do. In a flash, they all transformed.

Carapace threw open the classroom door, and they rushed out. Viperion was already in the process of ferrying people to the roof, so the rest of them joined in. By the time the water had risen to five feet below the rooftop walkways—where it stopped—Ladybug was pretty sure they’d gotten everyone up.

King Monkey was frantic. Without waiting for her instruction, he tried to dive into the water. Luckily, Pegasus was fast enough to grab him by the rope around his waist and yank him back.

“Follow me!” Ladybug called, leading the team to a spot on the roof where they could get some relative privacy and not be overheard.

“Ladybug!” King Monkey protested. “What about Ondine? What about Romy?!” He searched the water below as if he thought he’d see them floating by.

“Don’t think about it!” Ladybug ordered. “We can’t fight the villains if you’re not focused. Everyone is fine!” She said that partly for her own benefit, but she couldn’t help glancing toward her terrace and was relieved to see her parents, Geneviève, and Louis there, watching her and the other heroes expectantly. “If you start thinking about how much danger everyone’s in, you can’t get the job done and save them! They’re fine, and even if they’re not now, they will be once the magic ladybugs fix everything.”

“The magic ladybugs failed once before!” King Monkey shot back, his eyes still wild with worry.

“They failed to correct an act of _creation_ ,” she said firmly, grabbing his big collar to get him focused on her. “They’ve never, ever failed to correct any _destruction_.” She made sure to sound like she was absolutely certain about it because she needed to be for her team’s sake. It _was_ their best theory, though, and the more she’d thought about it, the more sure she really was that it was right.

It was what King Monkey needed to hear. He took a breath and calmed down enough to listen to her directions. “All right. I trust you, Ladybug. What do we do?”

“First, you can’t give any indication that you have any personal connection to her, if it is Syren. You can’t risk giving your identity away to Hawk Moth.”

Resolve firmed on his face. “Okay.”

“Good. We have to find her. Everyone, keep an eye out for any leads on where the villain is. In the mean time, let’s assume it’s Syren. King Monkey, take us to her home or wherever she’s supposed to be right now. If she’s not there, we’ll try the pool where she set up last time.”

When they reached Ondine’s house, they found two men and two women on the roof, but neither Ondine nor her baby were anywhere in sight.

“Ladybug!” The oldest and largest man waved to where Ladybug and the others had popped their heads out of the water. “Over here!” When Ladybug, Cat Noir, and King Monkey made it to the roof, the man said, “It’s my daughter! She’s been akumatized!”

“Okay, sir,” Ladybug said. “Do you know where she went?”

But before the man could answer, King Monkey asked, “What happened?”

The man rubbed his hand over his hair. “It’s my fault. I should have known not to bring it up so soon. I have a friend who runs a boarding school in Switzerland, and I thought she’d be happy that I’ve made arrangements for her daughter to go there. She’s still only a child herself, you see. Shouldn’t she be grateful that I’m helping her?”

Cat Noir clenched his fists, but his voice stayed even. “Controlling isn’t the same as helping.”

The man appeared confused by Cat Noir’s statement. Ladybug could see that both her partner and King Monkey wanted to argue with Ondine’s father, but they didn’t have time for that. “Did you see which way she went?” she repeated.

He nodded and pointed. “She took her child and went that way.”

“To the pool,” Ladybug noted. “Let’s go.”

They found Syren at the pool. Or rather, they found what was obviously her lair. Instead of a throne to hold her captive, there was only a bubble nestled safely in a cage of coral and seaweed. Inside the bubble was a sleeping infant.

“Ro—uh, a baby!” King Monkey cried before shooting forward to examine the bubble.

Ladybug was right behind him. “She’s fine,” she assured him. “See, she’s just sleeping.” Romy could obviously breathe and appeared to be sleeping peacefully. “Let’s find Syren and get this over with.”

“Uh, guys,” Cat Noir said behind them. “Anyone else find this situation kinda fishy?”

Assured that the baby was safe for now, Ladybug and King Monkey rejoined the others. They floated together in the middle of the huge, multi-level room where a pool normally resided but which was now filled to the ceiling with water. Aside from a few small fish swimming around, it was strangely empty.

“Did we swim into a trap?” Pegasus asked.

Suddenly, every one of the dozens of doors lining the upper levels of the room opened, and large sea creatures burst out. Sharks, octopi, sturgeons—Where did all these creatures even come from?

As the team scrambled to defend themselves and Ladybug barked out orders, a pink mermaid slid out of hiding and floated between her baby and the heroes. “Hawk Moth knew you’d come, Ladybug. You’re all such fools. Did you really think I’d hurt my own child?”

Ladybug and the others were too focused on fighting the sea creatures to answer back.

It was a tough fight. Definitely tougher than any they’d faced in a while. After they defeated the first round of aquatic goons, Syren sent out seaweed to tie them up while poisonous jellyfish came for them. Then she called up a flurry of bubbles, trying to blind them so she could escape with her baby. But they defeated her in the end, as they always did.

Once the akuma was purified and the magic ladybugs had done their work, King Monkey went over to where Ondine sat confused on the floor near the pool, Romy in her arms. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“What happened?” asked Ondine. “Oh, you’re that monkey hero.” She saw the others. “Ladybug? What—Oh, no! Did I get akumatized?”

“Yes,” Ladybug said, “but it’s fine now. How do you feel?”

“I’m okay, but—did I put Romy in danger?” She was edging toward panic as she examined her baby for any harm.

King Monkey put his hands gently on her shoulders. “Romy’s fine. You didn’t hurt her. Come on; I’ll take you both home.”

He tossed a look over his shoulder to Ladybug as he scooped Ondine up, and she nodded acknowledgment. After he left, Ladybug said, “We’d better detransform, feed our kwamis, then get back and make sure everyone got down from the roof.”

As the team headed back to school, Ladybug thought back on the fight and came to some troubling conclusions. Hawk Moth had refrained from akumatizing any pregnant women since the last Scarlet Moth event, but apparently women who had very recently given birth were fair game to him. Plus, this fight had definitely been harder than previous ones, which meant he had probably figured out that Ladybug wasn’t pregnant anymore, and he’d therefore taken the gloves off. Which meant that she’d been right; things were definitely going to get harder than ever now, just as Ladybug and most of the rest of her team had more responsibilities than ever in their normal lives. She didn’t know how long they’d be able to go on as heroes when they had babies, but they couldn’t risk replacing any of them—certainly not Ladybug herself—right when Hawk Moth was ramping up his attacks. They needed to find him soon and take him down for good. But how?

#

Gabriel returned to his atelier, disappointed at yet another failure but pleased that at least one thing had been confirmed. Ladybug had given birth recently; he was sure of it now. The fact that newborns led to sleep deprivation could only work to his advantage in future fights, although she didn’t show any sign of being off her game today. In fact, she had been nearly back to her usual fighting capability, despite her body not having yet returned fully to its pre-pregnancy state.

Nathalie was waiting in his atelier for him when he arrived. She handed him a stack of papers. “The records you asked for, of women and teen girls who gave birth last week. I’ve compiled the information into single-page briefs and removed any who you’ve akumatized in the past and were saved by Ladybug.”

“Excellent. Thank you, Nathalie.” Gabriel took the papers and flipped through them. There were quite a few. They would need to be narrowed down further in order to prioritize the investigation. Handing the stack back to Nathalie, he said, “Let’s assume for the moment that Ladybug’s appearance when she transforms only changes as much as yours or mine does. Narrow these down to only teen girls or petite younger women.” Whenever Nathalie turned into Mayura, her skin, hair, and eye color all changed, so none of those would be considered reliable indicators of a Miraculous holder’s true appearance. He had, however, never seen a person’s age or height change when they transformed. (Which didn’t mean it was impossible, but he had to start somewhere.)

“Yes, sir.”

Gabriel got back to work. Fifteen minutes later, Nathalie handed him a much smaller stack of papers. As he flipped through them, anticipation built up like static electricity in his skin. One of these girls was most likely Ladybug. There were only twenty profiles here. That was certainly few enough for him to have deep investigations done on them.

When he got to the last profile, he came up short. “Nathalie, why is there a profile of Marinette in here?”

“Simple thoroughness, sir. She does meet all the specifics you asked for.”

The idea that he might be fighting his own future daughter-in-law vaguely unsettled him. If it was her, he had to worry about how Adrien would react if he ever found out. How Emilie would react, even. On the other hand, if it was her, then the Ladybug Miraculous might be far easier to acquire than he’d thought. Perhaps, if he explained why he wanted it, she would even give it to him for Adrien’s sake.

Gabriel returned Marinette’s profile to the back of the stack. He couldn’t ignore the possibility that she was Ladybug, but it would complicate things if she were.

He rearranged the rest of the profiles in order of how much they resembled Ladybug—deliberately avoiding as he did so the fact that Marinette resembled Ladybug more than any of the rest. Handing the stack back to Nathalie, he said, “Have them investigated. Watched, if necessary.”

Nathalie flipped through the stack. “All of them?”

“Yes. In this order of priority.”

“Understood, sir.”

When she didn’t leave right away, he asked, “Is there anything else?”

“Adrien did contact me yesterday with an additional request for one of his friends.” She briefly explained the situation.

Gabriel was inclined to refuse any help. Adrien was testing the bounds of his generosity. Was Gabriel to feel responsible for every friend Adrien had who’d ended up with a child prematurely?

_You are responsible_ , said a voice inside his head that sounded too much like Nooroo.

Akumatizing them now and then was one thing, but he’d never intended for any of their lives to be irrevocably changed.

Grumbling, Gabriel said, “Fine. Offer the boy a part-time job. Something that suits whatever his skills are.”

Nathalie made a note on her tablet. “Yes, sir.”

When she still didn’t leave, he waited, one eyebrow raised in inquiry.

“By the way, the boy’s young wife is the girl you just akumatized.”

Gabriel wasn’t too prideful to appreciate the irony.


	88. Chapter 88

Walking toward the hospital entrance, Marc tried to calm his shaking hands and racing heart, but it was no use. The source of his anxiety wasn’t the building itself. He’d been here lots of times in the past few weeks to visit Alix with Nathaniel.

The difference was that this time, when he left the building, he wouldn’t be going home alone.

He walked through the doors and past the reception desk, pulling out his phone to check his texts. There was one sent yesterday from a number he didn’t have in his phone, telling him that Mireille had gone into labor but not to do anything until he heard from them again. It had been enough to ensure he didn’t get any writing or much sleeping done all night. Then late this morning, a second text had informed him that the baby was born and healthy, and he should come pick her up at his convenience.

_I’m not ready for this. I’m not ready for this_ , he thought. But he had to be, because he’d agreed to it and the time had come. And despite the fact that he was so nervous he felt like he might throw up, he didn’t want to back out now.

He’d used money he’d gotten from the modeling jobs he’d already done to get everything he needed for a baby. At least, he hoped he wasn’t missing anything critical. There wasn’t much extra space in his bedroom, but he’d done his best to set up an area for the baby. His parents had made it clear that they weren’t going to kick him and the baby out on the street, but if he intended to go through with raising her, they expected him to find someplace else to live as soon as he reasonably could.

Marc arrived at the room number he’d been given and knocked softly. The door opened a crack, and Mireille’s mom stuck her head through. “Mireille’s nursing the baby,” she said. “Come back in ten minutes.” Then she shut the door.

For a second, Marc just stood there, not sure what to do. His nerves were on full alert, ready for the big moment, but now he had to wait another ten minutes. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, and wandered down the hall.

He was just pacing, really. Killing time. Meandering toward the vending machines. He passed a door that had been left open, and a familiar laugh startled him. _Is that Marinette?_ He edged toward the open door and peeked in, trying to stay as hidden as he could in case there were only strangers.

Before he got a look at anyone, he heard voices talking. _That’s definitely Marinette_ , he concluded. When he heard Nino as well, he figured that meant it probably wasn’t a family thing and it might not be weird if he said hi. He could certainly use something to keep him occupied for a few more minutes. Very softly, he knocked on the open door.

They kept talking as if they hadn’t heard, and he took a step back. Maybe this was a bad idea.

But even as the voices continued, footsteps approached, and Nathaniel appeared. “Marc, hi!” He looked back into the room. “Marc’s here.”

Why did Nathaniel have to announce him like that? What if they didn’t want him there?

A voice he recognized as Alya’s called out, “Come on in, Marc!” She sounded like she meant it, so Marc entered.

The room was bigger than the one Alix was in, but it was definitely a delivery room. Alya was the one in the bed, and she was holding a baby.

Marc blushed with embarrassment. He liked Alya, but the two of them weren’t exactly what anyone would call close, and he’d apparently just intruded on one of the most important days of her life. His instinct was to apologize and leave, but before he could do that, Alya motioned to a couch on one side of the room and told him to sit.

He took a seat beside Nathaniel on the couch and took in the situation. Alix was in a wheelchair on the other side of Nathaniel, and on the other side of the bed, Nino was in a chair pulled up right next to Alya while Marinette and Adrien were in chairs close to him, with their baby in Adrien’s arms.

“I . . . I’m sorry to intrude,” Marc said.

“You’re not intruding!” Alya assured him. “We were just hanging out here with my awesome new baby. Want to meet her?”

Marc glanced around; the others were all watching him expectantly. He stood and went closer to the bed so he could see the baby. “She’s cute,” he said, although all babies pretty much looked the same as far as Marc could tell. At least when they were this young. The only reason he knew it was a girl was because he remembered hearing that Alya was having a girl.

Alya kissed her baby’s head. “Her name’s Keva.”

Marc wasn’t really sure what the right thing to say here was. “When was she born?”

Nino answered, “Yesterday afternoon. Things have been seriously cray-cray.”

“My parents were here until dawn,” Alya said. “They wanted to go home and get some sleep, but then my big sister went into labor.” With one hand, she grabbed her phone and swiped a couple times, then held the screen toward him. “I’m an aunt now, too! This is Yemaya. Isn’t she adorable?”

“Yeah, she is,” Marc said, hoping he got the right amount of enthusiasm behind it. (It was hard to focus on all this when his stomach was still full of nervous anticipation.) The baby on the screen looked a lot like the baby in Alya’s arms, though Yemaya was a couple shades darker and had a little poof of pitch black hair.

“How funny that they were born so close together,” said Marinette. “They’re cousins, but they’re also kinda like twins.”

Nino raised an eyebrow at her. “Dude, have you _seen_ Nora? And I’ve met her baby’s father; he’s even bigger than she is. Yemaya’s gonna be a freakin’ amazon. Which is _awesome_ —don’t get me wrong—but I really don’t think my genes can compete with that.”

Marinette shrugged. “I didn’t say _identical_ twins.”

Marc resumed his seat on the couch beside Nathaniel.

“Did you come to visit Alix?” Nathaniel asked.

“Huh? No.” Marc looked past Nathaniel to Alix, suddenly feeling guilty for saying no, even though he knew that was stupid. He waved at her anyway. “How are you doing, though?”

“Feeling pretty good today,” Alix said. “I can’t wait until I can actually get out of here. I am _so_ out of shape. I do a couple laps down the hall, and I’m wiped.”

“At least you’re getting better,” Marc said.

Adrien asked, “If you didn’t come to see Alix and you didn’t know about Alya, why are you here, Marc?”

Marc tugged at the ends of his fingerless gloves. “I . . . I’m here to pick up my . . . my baby. She was born last night.”

Everyone’s eyes lit up. Nathaniel gave him a congratulatory pat on the back while the rest of them let out happy exclamations.

“Where is she?” Nino asked. “Why are you waiting around in here?”

“Mireille’s not ready yet. I’m supposed to go back in a few minutes.”

They all hid it quickly, but he could see the fleeting confusion that passed over all their faces. As if making him wait outside the room was strange and abnormal.

Which it was. He knew that.

_I’d better get used to seeing that reaction, I guess._

“Well, her loss is our gain,” said Alya. “Now you get to hang out with us.”

The group fell back into easy conversation with each other, absorbing Marc into the group and accepting his presence as one of them. Even after all these months, he still wasn’t used to it. It was wonderful, though, to have so many friends and be accepted so easily. He’d spent so much of his life on the outskirts, shy and unnoticed, afraid to approach anyone for friendship because he’d had enough bad experiences to doubt that anyone would actually welcome such an advance.

He had Marinette to thank for finally pushing him into real friendships. When he’d been younger, he’d tried to make friends a few times, but he’d mostly been met with total disinterest from the other party. Maybe they’d join him in a game or something if he invited them, but they never reciprocated. Never _wanted_ to be around him. People just didn’t care if he was there or not, and they never missed him if he wasn’t. So he’d withdrawn into the world inside his head, working out his thoughts and desires through story, and for a while, it was enough. He never shared his stories with anyone, of course. Not because he didn’t want to but because whenever someone did find out what he wrote, they told him it wasn’t good or told him in patronizing tones that it _was_ good (and he knew they were lying) or thought he was weird for writing fictional stories about celebrities, about the people around him (pretending to know them, since they didn’t want to let him really know them), and eventually about real-life superheroes.

When he’d found Nathaniel’s art, he’d been in awe of it—so good and so complimentary to his own interests. And he’d been right there in the same school! Marc had indulged in daydreams of making a friend with similar interests and even wilder daydreams about someone whose work he admired actually liking _his_ work enough to want to collaborate. But he’d known in his heart that no one would see him that way because no one ever had. Some people were meant to live their lives alone, he’d figured, only expressing themselves through written words which others might or might not ever see. He’d still been working on resigning himself to this truth when Marinette had interfered.

Sure, she could have handled it better than she did, but they were all just kids, so he didn’t blame her for her clumsy attempt to introduce him to Nathaniel. If he’d been confident enough to try to make friends with Nathaniel himself, there would have been no misunderstanding, and he’d never have gotten himself akumatized. But it had worked out in the end, and Marc had Marinette to thank for it.

As the group chatted, Marc watched her and Adrien, trying not to stare. They were engaged now, he’d heard. Whatever had happened, Adrien had finally seen what a terrific girl Marinette was. Marc was so very happy for them both, but especially for her. Marinette was a really amazing person—everyone at school knew it, for the most part—and she deserved all the happiness she could get. She deserved to have the boy she loved love her back. Frankly, Marc hoped that Adrien knew how lucky he was to have her, when there were any number of guys at their school who would have been happy to be in his position. Though Adrien was a pretty great person himself, having gone out of his way to help Marc get into modeling like he had.

Lowering his head to make it less obvious, Marc cast a glance at Nathaniel and Alix and wondered what would happen with the two of them. He knew Nathaniel loved her, but he didn’t think that Alix knew that. Marc totally understood why Nathaniel wasn’t saying anything yet, but he hoped he didn’t wait too late. Not that Marc had any idea what ‘too late’ even meant when it came to those two. It wasn’t like Alix was some frilly girl whose head was filled with romance and wedding plans, so she didn’t seem likely to latch onto some other guy any time soon. Marc figured the bigger risk there was that they would comfortably stay just friends until they were both old and grey. But that probably wouldn’t happen.

Not with Marinette and Alya around, at least.

Marc felt a tepid sort of jealousy toward Adrien, Nino, and Nathaniel, who’d either gotten with a girl they loved or at least _found_ a girl they loved because of this whole thing. That definitely hadn’t happened with Mireille. Their relationship was polite and distant—barely acquaintances. Not that he’d actually wanted anything romantic with her, but he’d made some effort to become friends at least. Like all those other people before, she hadn’t been interested in his friendship.

He didn’t have his eye on anyone else, though. He had some female friends now, and that was great, but no one really came to mind when he thought about being part of a couple. Marc wasn’t even that into girls right now. Having friends was new enough that it was plenty for him, and he had too many stories in his head to spend any time thinking about girls. But he’d thought it might be nice at some point when he was an adult to marry and have a family like other people had. If he could ever find a girl who’d like him that way. It had seemed unlikely before. Now that he came with a child, it seemed almost impossible.

Though he would have his baby. One person who was bound to him now, whether she wanted to be or not. At least there was that. He really needed to not screw this up, or else even she might get tired of him by the time she was old enough to walk away.

Glancing at the clock on the wall, he saw that his ten minutes were up. He stood and murmured, “Excuse me,” hoping not to interrupt their conversation, but everyone stopped talking and looked at him anyway.

“You going to get her now?” Nino asked.

Marc nodded. “If Mireille will let me.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” Nathaniel asked.

The nerves in Marc’s stomach were coming back full-force, and his heart was pounding again. He nodded.

Nathaniel walked with him back to Mireille’s room. When Marc knocked this time, Mireille’s mom let him in. It was just her, a doctor, and Mireille in the room. Mireille was on the bed, holding a baby wrapped in a blanket. Marc gulped.

“Hello, Marc,” said the doctor. He recognized her from the appointments Mireille had let him come to. “Ready to take your daughter home?”

_My daughter_ , he thought, feeling overwhelmed, like a huge wave was crashing down on him. “Y-yes.”

They stared at him, waiting, so he moved toward the bed. Mireille held out the baby, and he took her into his arms. He’d had practice with Nathaniel’s sons, so he knew the right way to hold a baby, but she felt unbearably heavy, the weight of a human life making him wonder if he could really hold it all up.

His daughter had black hair, and she was wearing a little headband with a bow on it. She was dozing, so he couldn’t see her eyes.

“What did you name her?” he asked.

Mireille shook her head, and when he looked up from their baby, he saw moisture in Mireille’s eyes before she turned her head to wipe it away. “I don’t have any right to name her. She’s yours from now on.”

“Oh.” Marc was grateful for that, even though he hadn’t prepared for it at all. He watched his daughter, wondering how people ever picked out a name for their kids.

“Do you want to think about it while we go through some things?” asked the doctor.

Marc nodded, and the doctor showed him some infant care that he hadn’t already learned. He had to learn to change a diaper on a girl because it was slightly different than a boy. When the doctor laid the baby on the changing table, unwrapped her blanket, and took off her diaper, Marc blushed and hoped no one saw him. The diaper was clean, so there wasn’t a mess, but he’d never babysat and he didn’t have younger siblings. He’d changed Aleron’s and Daniel’s diapers a few times, but they were boys. The only time he’d seen that part of a girl in real life was the fleeting glimpse he’d caught of Mireille before he’d run off after the gas attack. So he felt like he should look away, but he couldn’t do that because it would defeat the purpose. And it was weird to be shy about changing his own daughter’s diaper anyway. He just had to get used to it.

Behind him, Nathaniel whispered, “It’s okay. This is weird for all of us.” Maybe he’d seen the tops of Marc’s ears turn red.

Marc took some comfort in the reassurance and focused on learning what he needed to know from the doctor. Once she’d gone through everything and double-checked that Marc knew the things she hadn’t explained in detail, she asked, “Have you thought of a name? We do kind of need one for the birth certificate before you leave.”

A few minutes later, Marc left Mireille with an awkward, “See you at school,” and returned to Alya’s room with his daughter in his arms and Nathaniel beside him. He was in no particular hurry to get home, so he thought being with friends for a little while longer might help calm him down.

Marinette leapt up immediately to coo over the new baby, and everyone else had to have a look at her. Marc felt . . . pleased, in some indefinable way, at the attention.

“What’s her name?” Marinette asked, stroking the baby’s cheek.

“Mireille let me name her, since she’s mine now,” Marc explained, stalling, unsure how the reaction to this was going to be, but Nathaniel gave an encouraging smile and nod. “Her name’s . . . Coccinelle.”

Marinette’s face snapped up to his—stunned, and not in a particularly good way.

_Oh, crap_ , Marc thought. _I screwed up already. I gave her a weird name. She’s gonna hate me._

Then Adrien laughed, and Marc wasn’t sure that was a positive response either. Alya and Nino seemed to think it was funny, too.

“You . . . you named her after Ladybug?” Marinette asked.

It was done now, so Marc tried to commit to it. “You’re supposed to name kids after people you think they should be like, right? I mean, some people do? I can’t think of any girl I admire more than Ladybug.”

For some reason, Marinette’s face turned extremely red, and she chuckled nervously. “I—I’m sure she’d be really flattered by that.”

“You don’t think it’s weird?”

“No! It’s not weird at all! It’s . . . it’s great. But . . . I’m just surprised. After all”—her voice got quiet—“it’s kind of her fault that this is all happening.”

“Hey!” Adrien snapped, offended on Ladybug’s behalf.

Marc cocked his head at Marinette. “What do you mean?”

Marinette’s voice was even softer. “Because she didn’t stop Fairy Grandmother.”

Marc shook his head. “That doesn’t make any sense. Hawk Moth made all this happen. Ladybug has always stood up for everyone. She’s so brave and smart, and she always tries to do the right thing. Not being totally perfect doesn’t make her less of a hero. In fact, I think it makes her more of one, because it means she’s just a normal person like the rest of us, and she’s still out there doing all that she does.”

“Exactly!” Adrien agreed.

“Totally,” Nino said.

“Yeah, Marinette,” Alya said, not unkindly. “Maybe lay off the Ladybug blame, okay? You really need to get past it. Everyone else has.”

Marinette seemed uncertain for a moment, but then the tension left her face, and she smiled softly at Marc and Coccinelle. “Thank you, Marc.”

“For what?”

Marinette suddenly looked around and flailed a little, flustered in the way that Adrien used to make her. “Nothing! Uh, just, uh—it’s a good name for a good baby. So . . . yeah!”

Adrien, Nino, and Alya laughed at her, so Marc felt okay in laughing a little, too. Marinette sure was silly sometimes.

“Why didn’t you just name her Ladybug?” Alix asked.

“I thought that might be confusing for her when she hears people talk about Ladybug,” he explained. “And I don’t know Ladybug’s real name, so I couldn’t use that. So, since Ladybug uses the English word for her name, I thought using the French word would be obvious enough but not confusing.”

“Coccinelle Anciel,” Adrien said like he was trying out the name. “That’s kinda poetic, actually. I like it.”

The rest of the group also reassured him that he’d chosen a good name, so Marc decided to believe them.

Nathaniel sat over by Adrien, and Marc had to sit between Alix and Marinette so they could have turns holding Coccinelle. The group fell into casual chatter again, now about future plans and baby things. Marc mostly listened, and eventually he got Coccinelle back, though no one changed seats.

As he listened to the others express their pride and happiness in their babies, even though they hadn’t wanted or planned on them, Marc looked down at his daughter in his arms and felt . . . like he was missing something.

A hand on his arm brought his attention to Marinette. “Is something wrong?” she asked softly.

He hesitated to talk about it, but if they could do it quietly enough to not draw the others’ attention, maybe he should. Maybe she’d know of some way to fix it. “I don’t . . . I don’t feel like she’s mine,” he admitted, ashamed. “I know she is, but I don’t feel any connection to her. Is this a mistake? Am I going to be a horrible parent?”

“No!” Marinette insisted in a whisper. It wasn’t a huge room, but she was keeping her head down and her voice low so the others didn’t hear and ask what they were talking about. “People don’t always feel everything they think they should when they become a parent. That doesn’t mean they’re not a good parent or that they won’t come to feel those things. At least . . . that’s what I’ve been told.”

He gave her a questioning look.

She hesitated before continuing. He could tell whatever it was was difficult for her to say. “I . . . can’t breastfeed Louis. I could, physically, but for some reason, it just . . . makes me feel so uncomfortable, emotionally. I hate that I feel that way. It feels like I’m rejecting him, like I’m not a good mom. So, I . . . kinda get what you mean.”

Marc would never have expected that Marinette would have any trouble connecting to her own child at all, so the confession was very surprising. But it also made him feel like he wasn’t alone, like he wasn’t the one weird person of the group.

“But it’s okay,” she went on. “Lots of parents have trouble connecting in one way or another with their baby. The emotional part doesn’t always happen automatically. Especially for you, since Mireille kept you at a distance for the whole pregnancy, you never had a chance to bond with Coccinelle before now. _Now_ you can start forming that bond. No one expects you to already feel it when you were never given a chance before. People don’t just automatically feel emotional bonds with people they’re genetically related to but have never met before. If they did, that would pretty much be magic.”

The tension in Marc’s chest eased considerably at her words. “You’re right. Thank you, Marinette. I feel a lot better now.”

She gave him a conspiratorial wink. “Good. Just remember, we’re all feeling our way through this, and there are a lot of us in this boat. Whatever weird things you’re feeling about it, I guarantee you’re not alone.”

He smiled at her, so grateful again to have friends. If he hadn’t made the friends he had before all this had happened, he _would_ be going through all this alone—all the fear and doubt and panic. Now he knew he had people to talk to, and that was huge.

They rejoined the group conversation, and Marc found himself participating. Nino would look to him for corroboration of some comment he’d made about a dad’s job protecting his daughter from sketchy guys, or Adrien would ask Marc’s opinion on child models, or Alya would roll her eyes at a lame joke Adrien made and mutter something about ‘dad jokes’ while implying that Nino, Nathaniel, and Marc had better not start making them, too.

In other words, Marc was part of the group. Fully. Completely. Included. And it felt absolutely amazing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not actually making a scene of Alya's baby's birth, but I stalled on it for a while before I realized that there was just nothing interesting to say about it, since it happened pretty much how you'd expect.


	89. Chapter 89

When Adrien and Marinette entered the school courtyard the next day, they weren’t surprised to see Marc surrounded by people admiring his baby. The expression on his face was one part happy, one part overwhelmed, and two parts exhausted. While Marinette went into the locker room to get their things for class sorted, Adrien walked over to Marc.

“Good morning, everyone,” Adrien said, instantly splitting the group’s attention. He didn’t really know any of the kids, so he assumed they were from Marc’s class or some of the others. A few people took out their phones to snap photos of the two of them, both holding their babies. The modeling practice Marc had been doing must have started to become automatic, because instead of shying away from the cameras, he found a tired smile and let them have their pics. After a minute or two of chatter and photos, Adrien said, “I’m sure Marc’s tired, guys. Let’s not overwhelm him with congratulations.”

They got the hint, and the group dispersed.

“Thanks,” Marc murmured. “I wasn’t expecting that kind of response. I appreciate their congratulations, but I really am tired.”

“Taking care of a baby at night isn’t easy to get used to. How did it go?”

Marc sighed. “I have no idea what I’m doing.”

Adrien chuckled. “Yeah.”

“She’s so _loud_. How can something so small be so loud?”

“How did your parents react to her?”

Marc’s mouth twisted. “Okay. They think she’s cute and all, and Mom came in at night a couple times to help, but in the morning I could tell they weren’t happy with the disruption. They didn’t say anything, but I could tell.”

Once again, Adrien really wished he’d thought to buy a bigger house. If he hadn’t been so hung up on his Ladybug-and-Marinette plan, or if he’d found out earlier that the two girls were the same person, he might have considered a house for his friends early enough to get a bigger one. Of course, there’d still have been the issue of the nanny. With five babies to care for once they moved in, Geneviève said she’d have to have an assistant, and Gabriel had basically put his foot down on paying for any more than that. At least Adrien had helped Marc find the modeling work, but as a single dad and full-time student, that was far from enough to solve his problems.

Adrien heard talking behind him and turned to see Rose, Juleka, and Luka entering the courtyard. The siblings were walking and chatting calmly, like normal people, but Rose was positively bouncing with excitement. “Hey, guys,” Adrien said.

“Adrien!” Rose squealed, running over to them. “And Marc! Just the boys I wanted to see!”

After exchanging a look of confusion with Marc, Adrien asked, “Why?”

As if presenting a golden ticket to a poor, chocolate-loving urchin, Rose held up a magazine. The cover was folded back to show a full-page ad for the Gabriel brand. “Look what I found yesterday!”

“Oh, that finally came out?” Adrien said, inspecting the ad. It was from a shoot he’d done a while ago—the first one that Marc and Juleka had done. They’d wanted Adrien there to help introduce the two new models. It had actually been a really fun shoot, partly for having friends doing it with him and partly because the whole tone was outside of what Adrien usually did. While it still fit pretty well with the Gabriel brand’s fairly traditional image, it leaned enough into the emo/goth look to be something different and fun. The photo they’d used for this ad was pretty basic in composition: the three models against a simple studio backdrop, with Adrien standing in the center, Juleka sitting on a box at his left, and Marc sitting on the floor at his right. Adrien didn’t really like how it kind of implied Adrien was better than the others, but the tiered pose did fill out the page pretty well and keep the eye moving around. “Hey, you guys look good,” he said after examining the ad.

When he looked to his fellow models to congratulate them on the results of their first shoot, he found both of them blushing as they stared at the ad as if they’d never seen it before. (Though maybe they hadn’t. Models usually didn’t get shown the pictures from a shoot. Adrien could see them if he asked, because of who he was, but he’d been so busy that he’d forgotten to.)

“So good!” Rose agreed.

Luka bumped Juleka with his shoulder. “They’re right. You look really cool. You did a great job, Jule.”

She smiled even while she tried to hide behind her bangs and murmured, “You really think so?”

“Of course,” Luka said.

“You’re both amazing,” Adrien added. “Total naturals. Well, once we got you more comfortable in front of the camera.”

Marc laughed and shook his head. “I’m not a natural at all. If I don’t totally suck at it, it’s only because you spent to much time teaching me.”

Adrien patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t sell yourself short, Marc. My father wouldn’t hire you if he didn’t see value in your work. And no matter how much training someone gets, not everyone can do well at this. Even my help wouldn’t have meant anything without your hard work.”

“Well,” Marc conceded, “I’m motivated.” His hands moved to adjust his hold on Coccinelle.

That drew Juleka’s attention to her. “Is that your baby?”

Marc smiled. “Yeah. Want to meet her?”

Juleka didn’t hesitate to take him up on it, coming alive in a way that it was difficult for her friends to get her to do under normal circumstances. When Marc took Coccinelle out of her baby sling to let Juleka hold her, Juleka cooed and smiled at the baby as if no one was watching her. Rose did her fair share of squealing about the baby, of course, and took her turn to hold her.

As Marc watched the two girls cuddle Coccinelle with a tired smile on his face, Adrien stepped back to appreciate the scene and found himself standing beside Luka. “I never would have guessed that Juleka likes babies so much before all this,” he said, his voice pitched for Luka’s ears only.

Luka was smiling softly as he watched his sister. “Yeah. I didn’t really know about it either. We’d never really been around babies much before now.”

“I wish I could do more for him,” Adrien worried. It probably should have been strange to find it so easy to talk to a boy who was in love with the same girl he was, but there was just something about Luka that made him easy to confide in. “He needs a place to stay and someone to help with Coccinelle. I probably could have provided both if I’d planned ahead better.”

“They’re not all your responsibility, Adrien.”

Adrien looked at Luka, meaning to say something to point out that they kind of were his responsibility—at least a little. He hated to hear Marinette blame herself, but he couldn’t shake his own feeling that he needed to at least do what he could to make up for what he hadn’t been able to do during the attack.

But Luka met his gaze, saying with his eyes that he’d meant what he’d just said and daring Adrien to argue about it.

Adrien didn’t argue.

Luka went back to watching his sister and the others. A pensive expression shifted his features slightly, then his lips curved in a small, thoughtful smile.

“What is it?” Adrien asked.

“Just an idea,” Luka said. Before Adrien could ask what his idea was, Luka said, “I’m gonna head to class,” and walked away.

Adrien took Louis to the daycare room to check in. The twins were already there, as well as a couple other babies Adrien didn’t recognize. While he was getting Louis settled into a crib, Marc came through the door.

Marc introduced himself to Nurse Janine, and she gave him the daycare enrollment form. Adrien stuck around, pretending to be busy with the baby bag, in case he could help Marc at all, so he saw the uncertainty on Marc’s face as he filled out the form.

When he handed it back to the nurse, Marc said, “Um, about this line. I only put my name because I . . . uh, I have sole custody. But her mom’s here, too. She said she’d, uh, p-pump milk for Coccinelle for a month or so, so she might come in. But contact me if there’s anything you need.”

Nurse Janine squeezed Marc’s arm, taking the form with a look of compassion and understanding. “I’ll make a note of it.”

“Her name’s Mireille,” Marc said. “It’s okay if she wants to see Coccinelle or—or feed her herself. She just doesn’t want . . . ”

“It’ll be fine, dear,” Nurse Janine assured him. “We’re here for all of you, however we can help.”

Marc nodded. “Okay. Thank you.” He held up a small cooler. “Mireille gave me some milk for her for today. Am I supposed to come down and feed her?”

“Only if you really want to. You can stop in to see her whenever you like, but we’ve got everything covered otherwise. We want you to be able to focus on your studies and being a normal teen while you’re here, as much as possible.”

Marc visibly relaxed. “Thank you. Will you . . . help if I have questions?”

“Of course. And if we can’t give you an answer, we have resources we can tap to help you find the answer. Whenever you’re ready, just put your daughter in one of the empty cribs, and we’ll take care of her.”

When Marc moved over to a crib, Adrien decided he had things handled and went up to class.

#

Over the next few days, the daycare acquired several new residents. Alya and Nino returned to school with Keva, and Miss Bustier came back and brought her son, Destin. Romy was going to the daycare at Ondine’s school, of course, so Ondine could feed and/or pump for her throughout the day, but Kim talked about them both enough to make their presence felt anyway. A couple kids from other classes brought their babies in, and the daycare staff grew by two, not including the on-call pediatrician and the lactation consultant who came in once a week.

Friday afternoon, Adrien and Marinette only went back to her house for long enough to drop off their school stuff before heading out again. They decided to walk instead of taking the car, partly because the weather was nice and partly because they needed to be careful to not be seen going where they were going.

“I feel a little bad that we haven’t gone to see him yet,” said Adrien. He was wearing a hat and sunglasses, like Marinette was, and had Louis strapped to his chest in a contraption that let Louis face forward and take in the sights. Louis was also wearing a little hat and tiny sunglasses.

As they walked down the sidewalk, a middle-aged lady snapped a covert picture with her camera. That was the third person to do that so far on their walk—probably not because they recognized Adrien as a celebrity but only because the three of them were adorable together. “I know,” Marinette said, keeping an eye on her phone just in case Adrien did get tagged in someone’s photo. “It wasn’t until the third time Alya asked me when she’d be getting her Miraculous back that I realized I hadn’t seen him in months.”

“In our defense, we’ve been busy,” said Adrien.

By the time they arrived at Master Fu’s apartment building, Adrien was wondering if this was the most inconspicuous way they could have come. But surely seeing two superheroes jumping around with a baby would be even more likely to draw attention.

When they arrived at his door, Adrien was almost afraid to knock, certain that Master Fu would scold them for keeping such big developments from him for so long, once they told him.

The small man opened the door, blinked in surprise, and then smiled up at them. “Come in, you two. It seems you have much to tell me.”

Adrien followed Marinette in, and they took a seat on the floor across from Master Fu at a small table while the old man poured tea. Marinette set her phone on the table where she could keep an eye on it, and Adrien took off Louis’s hat and glasses without removing him from the baby frontpack. Tikki and Plagg flew around the room and joined Longg in his own tiny tea service.

“So, uh . . . ” Marinette started, “this is Louis.”

Master Fu wore a small, somewhat bemused smile. “How long have the two of you known about each other?”

“Since the night Louis was born,” Adrien answered, rubbing the back of his neck. “Almost two weeks. You’re not mad, are you? I know we weren’t ever supposed to find out.”

Master Fu took a sip of his tea. “I never said you were never supposed to find out. I always knew you would. And no, Adrien, I am not mad. I knew from the start that you two were made for each other. Call it an old man’s intuition. Once I learned that you had gotten Marinette pregnant, Adrien”—Adrien felt himself blush hard at that, but Master Fu pretended not to notice—“I knew it would not be long.”

“But our identities are compromised,” Marinette said. “Aren’t you worried that Hawk Moth might somehow catch one of us and be able to get _both_ Miraculouses now?”

Master Fu nodded slowly. “That is always a risk when partners know each other’s real identity, yes. But there have been other Ladybugs and Black Cats. There will be other Ladybugs and Black Cats. The two of you are not irreplaceable to Paris. You _are_ irreplaceable to each other.”

Without intentionally meaning to, Adrien snuck his hand over to take Marinette’s and squeezed it. He was almost afraid to ask his next question, but he had to know. “Are you going to take our Miraculouses?”

Master Fu frowned in thought, not answering immediately. “How are things going with your team?”

_Uh-oh._ Adrien glanced aside to see Marinette’s reaction. She looked as nervous as he felt.

“Um, good,” she said, her voice higher than normal. “We did figure out King Monkey’s real identity right away, though. Kim’s not very good at hiding stuff.” When that news appeared to displease Master Fu, Marinette hurried to add, “But he’s kept everything secret from everyone who’s _not_ part of the team.”

Squinting, Master Fu asked, “What aren’t you telling me?”

Marinette exchanged a look with Adrien and said, “We all know about each other.”

Master Fu almost dropped his tea cup. “What?!”

“I figured the other guys out pretty easily,” Adrien said. “I didn’t mean to. But I knew what the Turtle Miraculous looked like from seeing you wear it, so I recognized it on Nino. I already knew about Max and Luka. Then those guys all figured each other out by being . . . kinda careless, I guess. Not that it would have been easy for them to _not_ notice each other, when we all go to the same school. Then Luka found out about Marinette and me from using Second Chance, and then Nino and Alya figured us out from stuff we’d said without realizing it was a clue to our identities. By the time Marinette and I found out about each other, nearly everything else was already out, as far as the team goes.”

Master Fu’s eyes were wide, his lips pressed tightly together.

“No one else knows!” Marinette insisted.

Adrien leaned closer to her and whispered, “The hospital.”

She winced. “Except some hospital staff. We may have been a little careless there. But they promised not to tell. And let’s see _you_ keep your head on straight while giving birth.”

Master Fu didn’t respond to that particular challenge. He took a deep breath and rubbed his forehead. “This is not ideal.”

Adrien raised his hands. “Look, Master Fu, we already know that we won’t be able to keep our Miraculouses forever. If we can’t defeat Hawk Moth soon, we’ll need to find someone to take over for us. We have a baby to take care of now, on top of our other responsibilities, and we’re about to move into a house with some other people who don’t know about our superhero identities. But we’d like to keep going for as long as we can.”

“It’s a bad time to break in a new Ladybug and Cat Noir,” Marinette said. “The team’s working great, but Hawk Moth is ramping things way up now that I’m not pregnant anymore. We have to use almost all of our special abilities in most fights, and sometimes even power-ups. In fact, now that Alya’s not pregnant anymore either, I was hoping I could give her the Fox Miraculous to keep like the others.”

The kwamis zipped over from where they’d been drinking tea on the top of a dresser.

“And if they can defeat Hawk Moth, maybe we could stay with them,” said Tikki.

“What? Really?” Marinette asked her.

Adrien looked hopefully at Plagg. “Is that possible?”

“If the Guardian allows it,” said Plagg. “How about it, Master?”

Master Fu sighed. “One thing at a time, please.” He got up and brought the Miracle Box out of its hiding place, opening it before them.

Adrien gasped. It was amazing to see so many Miraculouses in one place. He wanted to try them all. But he behaved and kept his hands to himself.

Marinette chose the Fox Miraculous. “Thank you, Master Fu. So, you’re okay with keeping the team as it is for now?”

“If Hawk Moth is attacking as intensely as you say,” he answered, “then it’s best not to remove any of the team if it’s working well. But you must try to defeat him soon. Now that all of your identities are out, even if it’s only to each other, your position is precarious. There are too many things that could go wrong, and any one could lead to disaster.”

“We understand, Master,” said Marinette. “We’ll do our best to defeat Hawk Moth.”

“And if we do,” Adrien said, “can we keep our Miraculouses?”

“Ask me after you defeat him.” Master Fu put the Miracle Box away and sat back down, the tension in his face melting away into a smile. “Now, do I get to hold your little one?”

Fifteen minutes later, Marinette said, “Shoot. Someone recognized you.” She turned her phone to show Adrien a picture of them right in front of this building.

Sometimes, being famous was a real pain. “Crap. We should go. I’m so sorry, Master Fu.”

“It’s all right, Adrien,” he said, handing Louis back. “With Hawk Moth watching for me, I knew I’d need other hideouts eventually. It’s probably best if I move to a new one every time you visit me.”

“Oh, no!” exclaimed Marinette. “We’re so sorry! We didn’t mean to make you leave your home!”

“It’s the life of a Guardian,” Master Fu said. He told them where they could find him when they next needed to see him. “Now, you’d better go. I need to leave as soon as I can.”

They quickly got things together and headed for the door.

“Adrien. Marinette,” Master Fu said as he saw them out. “No matter how certain developments may have complicated things, I’m truly happy for you.”

Adrien grinned. “Thanks, Master Fu.”

#

Late Saturday morning, while Tom and Sabine were working in the bakery, Marinette answered the main house door and greeted Alya with an enthusiastic hug. “Alya, you’re here! I’m so excited!” she squealed unnecessarily. Nino escaped without a hug only due to the baby he was holding.

“Me, too, girl!” Alya replied. “I can’t wait to see what we’ve signed ourselves up for.”

Nino adjusted the baby bag he had slung over one shoulder. “Which way to Munchkinland?”

“You mean the nursery? Here, I’ll take you.” Marinette led them up the stairs to the second story, where the nursery and the master suite were.

The nursery was fairly small (on the house plans, it was labeled as an office), but the babies weren’t exactly mobile yet, so that wasn’t really an issue. It was a little crowded when Marinette and the others entered, though. Geneviève was sitting in a rocking chair in the corner, chatting with the two boys already in the room. Nathaniel was getting the twins settled into a couple of bassinets, and Adrien was bouncing Louis gently in his arms while they all talked.

“Hey, guys,” Adrien said. “Ready to see the house?”

Geneviève stood and moved toward Nino with a huge smile. “This must be Keva. Oh, what a darling.” It was still hard to believe that this warm, happy woman was Nathalie’s mom.

Nino dropped the bag and shifted Keva toward Geneviève. “Hey, little dudette, meet your Nanny Geneviève.”

Keva didn’t give any response to this other than to try to turn sleepily toward Nino’s chest.

Geneviève laughed. “I’m sure we’ll get along fine. I’ll take good care of her and the boys while you’re gone.”

Alya looked around the small room. “Should we have brought our own bassinet?”

“Nah,” said Adrien. “There’s plenty of room in the crib for Little Bun and the future Mrs. Little Bun.”

“Adrien.” Marinette secretly hoped his prediction was correct, of course, but they needed to be sure not to put pressure on the kids or even tease them about it too much. It was safe now, while they were too young to understand any of it, but they’d have to tone it down eventually.

They left the babies with Geneviève and piled into the sedan waiting outside for them. It was pretty cramped, but it was a short ride. When the car came to a stop outside a large, pale green row house with grey trim, Marinette’s jaw dropped.

“We’re here!” Adrien said happily, opening the door to get out of the car.

They exited onto the sidewalk and gawked at the house while Adrien stood there with his chest puffed up.

“What do you think?” he asked.

“It’s so nice,” Marinette said, admiring the carved details on the front door.

“And _huge_ ,” said Alya.

Adrien deflated. “It’s not really that big. But it should be big enough for all of us.”

“Dude, how much did this cost?” Nino asked.

“Ah, let’s not talk about that. Ready to go inside?”

Alya stopped Nathaniel from fiddling with his phone by whipping out her own. “I got this, Nath. Leave the video tour to the video expert.”

He put his phone away. “Thanks, Alya. You probably are better at that by now than I am.”

They walked up the front steps, and Adrien produced a key to unlock it. “I came by with Father after the sale finalized, so I’ve already seen it. He wanted some small upgrades and repairs made, but those are all done now.”

Adrien opened the door, and they followed him into a large foyer with a staircase on the left, a hallway to the right of that, and an archway opening into the living room on the right wall.

“It’s move-in ready now,” Adrien said, closing the front door behind them. “We can change any of the paint easily before we move in, so if you don’t like something, just say so. If you really hate the counters or floors or anything like that, we could change it, too, but the longer we take on renovations, the longer it’ll be before we can move in.”

“Adrien, no, this is great,” Marinette said. The floor was a light, creamy hardwood that extended through the first floor and up the stairs.

“This is way nicer than my parents’ apartment,” Alya said, moving her phone around slowly to capture all the details.

Nino and Nathaniel both nodded in agreement.

Adrien took them on a tour through the house, and Marinette thrilled at every new room. It was amazing to think that this was her house. Shared, yes, but hers, not her parents’. She wouldn’t be a child living with her family. She’d be equal to everyone else living there. She’d get to help decorate and furnish the whole thing, not just her own room. She’d get to have a say in which drawer they put the silverware in and which wall the TV was on in the living room. These were small things, granted, but they still made her bubble with excitement.

The beautiful hardwood did indeed go throughout the house, with only the bathrooms and kitchen done in tile. The kitchen was spacious, with a large island that doubled as an eating bar, white marble counter tops, and brand new appliances. The living room was spacious enough for a dozen people to enjoy at once, as long as they furnished it the right way.

“You can bring whatever of your own stuff you want to, but Father also gave me an allowance to furnish the house,” Adrien said as they stood there considering it. “I’m not sure how much those things cost, but I think it should be enough if we’re careful and creative.”

Marinette smirked. “That sounds like a challenge. I’ll take it.”

“We’re all doing the decorating together, right?” said Nino. “Marinette’s got a good sense of style, but I’d rather the whole house not be pink.”

“Hey! I don’t always use pink!”

“You often do,” Alya pointed out, then put a hand on Nino’s arm. “Don’t worry, babe; I’m sure we’ll work it out to something we’re all happy with.”

They continued the tour, Adrien telling them what he thought each room could be used for unless any of them had objections. They didn’t.

There was a small bedroom on the first floor (which would be Nathalie’s), as well as a bathroom and some storage space under the stairs. On the second floor was a much larger bedroom with an en suite bathroom; this would be the boys’ room. There was also a powder bath off the hall and another large room which Adrien suggested could be used as a general studio for everyone’s various creative pursuits. This suggestion was met by unanimous approval. On top of having a dedicated creative space, Marinette thought it would be lovely to have a space to be creative with friends, even if they were working on different projects. Kind of like the art room at school, but without the restrictions of having to actually be at school (and risk unpleasant people like Chloe popping in).

The third floor was where the large bedroom they would use as a nursery was, along with a full bathroom, a small bedroom for Geneviève, and a room that Adrien thought they could use as a play room for the kids when they were old enough to need one.

The fourth floor housed the girls’ room (identical to the boys’, complete with bathroom), another powder bath, and an office that they could set up as a library and study space.

Once the tour was complete, they headed back down to the third floor to discuss what baby things they would need that they didn’t already have and what they could share versus what each baby needed their own of. The nursery didn’t look anything like a nursery yet, but it would once they got all the baby stuff in. While most of them were discussing this, Marinette caught Nathaniel staring at one of the walls.

“Don’t like the color?” she asked him. It was a cream color like the rest of the house. They were already planning to change this in many of the rooms.

Nathaniel tilted his head in consideration of the wall. “I was thinking I could paint a mural. If that’s okay. People do murals in nurseries, right?”

Marinette clapped her hands together. “That’s a great idea!”

This got the attention of the others. “A mural would be sweet,” said Nino. “You really up for that?”

Nathaniel shrugged. “I haven’t done one before, but I think I could. I could do it after we move in, as long as we keep things away from the wall for a while.”

Adrien patted Nathaniel’s shoulder. “That would be amazing! What would the mural be of?”

Here, Nathaniel seemed uncertain. “I usually draw superheroes, so we’d have to talk about it.”

Adrien grinned. “I’m up for a mural of Ladybug.”

Marinette sputtered but couldn’t exactly rebuke him adequately in front of Nathaniel. And she didn’t really want to shoot it down completely in case Nathaniel took it as a criticism of his usual work. So she said, “Only if Cat Noir’s there, too!”

“Hey!” said Alya. “What about the rest of the team?”

Somehow, they ended up deciding that there should be a mural of their superhero team on the wall of their kids’ nursery. Nathaniel looked as surprised by this development as Marinette was, once it had happened.

“You really want a superhero mural?” he asked.

“Sure, dude!” Nino said. “Play to your strengths, right? Besides, kids love superheroes.”

“Okay.” Nathaniel smiled, and Marinette could see the excitement this decision sparked in him. Any doubt she still had about the idea disappeared. “But we might need to use more than one wall to do it right.”

“Even better!” Adrien said.

Suddenly, their phones chimed with an akuma alert.

Alya stopped recording, and everyone checked the alert. The attack was happening in another part of the city—far enough that it hopefully wouldn’t impact them directly, but close enough that they should be able to get there quickly.

Marinette shared a quick look with Adrien, Nino, and Alya, and they all _almost_ darted out the door. Then they remembered Nathaniel was there.

“Uh . . . ” Marinette said, scrambling for some excuse.

Alya tapped on her phone. “I just sent the video to Alix. Nathaniel, why don’t you call her and talk with her about it? Get her thoughts for us. We’ll head downstairs to give you privacy.”

He looked at her in confusion. “Doesn’t everyone want to hear what she says?”

“Uh, what if she hates it?” Nino blurted. “She might be afraid to be honest with all of us listening.”

“I don’t think she’ll hate it,” Nathaniel said.

They didn’t really have time to go through this whole dance. “But she might be afraid to be totally honest in front of Adrien. Since it’s his house, and he’s so proud of it.” Which was ridiculous; everyone knew Alix had no problem with being honest.

“Uh,” Nathaniel started, probably about to point out this exact thing.

Marinette didn’t give him the chance. She grabbed Adrien and Alya and headed for the door. “So you go ahead and call Alix,” she told Nathaniel over her shoulder. “We’ll just be downstairs waiting!”

They all got out the door and were running down the stairs before could Nathaniel manage to respond.

“Think we can defeat a villain in the time it takes to make a phone call?” Adrien asked.

“Sure,” Marinette said, hoping it was true. She’d hate for Nathaniel to come downstairs and think they’d all abandoned him. “She’s got to watch the video, too, right?” They stopped on the second floor and ducked into what would be the boys’ room. “Let’s go out this window so Adrien’s driver doesn’t see us from the street. Spots—”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Alya raised an eyebrow and held out her hand.

“Oh, right!” A huge grin took over Marinette’s face as she reached into her purse and held out a small Miraculous box. It felt surprisingly good to be doing this as Marinette rather than as Ladybug. “Care to join the team, Rena?”

Alya snatched the box eagerly. “I’ve been waiting months for this.”

As soon as she opened the box, Trixx appeared. “Alya, it’s good to see you again!”

“You too, Trixx.”

Tikki, Plagg, and Wayzz had come out of hiding once the four of them were alone, and they all greeted Trixx enthusiastically.

Marinette asked the fox kwami, “Are you okay with staying with Alya for a while, Trixx?”

“Of course!”

That settled, the four heroes transformed, dove out the window, and headed toward the fight.

#

Gabriel sat at his desk, scowling at the profile in front of him. It was the last remaining from the initial round of Ladybug suspects that he’d asked Nathalie to investigate. All of the others had been investigated and discounted. He could either continue to ignore this last one—the one which he’d always known to be the most likely, based on her appearance—or broaden the investigation to include women with very little likelihood of being his nemesis.

He hadn’t hesitated to test his own son when he’d once suspected him of being Cat Noir. He didn’t back down from testing his future daughter-in-law now.

“Do you want me to have someone tail her?” Nathalie asked.

“No.” The digging his people had already done on Marinette had revealed nothing concrete, but enough to make him more suspicious. She had a history of tardiness to class and never seemed to be around when Ladybug was fighting one of his champions. On top of that, her bedroom had a rooftop exit which would make it easy for her to leave and return without her parents noticing, if she could indeed traverse the city more easily than the average person.

The really troubling thing was that those facts were also true for Adrien. Gabriel hadn’t deliberately had Adrien investigated, but given how close he and Marinette were, certain facts about Adrien had come to light during the investigation of her. Adrien wasn’t late to school as often, of course—Nathalie made sure of that—but he did have a history of being late back to class after a battle, even if the battle had not been near the school. If Gabriel assumed that his son had managed some trick when he’d sent Gorizilla after him which had made it appear that Adrien and Cat Noir were in the same place at the same time, then there were no other confirmed instances where Adrien had ever been seen while Cat Noir was known to be active. And the large windows in Adrien’s room at the mansion could provide an easy exit for someone with superpowers. Additionally, he still wore the same ring which had made Gabriel suspicious in the first place.

And then there was the matter of their friends.

He knew from Nathalie keeping him updated that Adrien’s friend Alya had given birth recently. And now Rena Rouge had rejoined Ladybug’s team. Coincidence?

Gabriel pulled up a video on his tablet, rewatching the odd moment where Alya had appeared to be flirting with Carapace. It had been strange, but meaningless without context. But Gabriel had seen through his connection with his puppets how Rena Rouge had flirted with Carapace a few times during this last battle. They appeared to be a couple.

If Alya was with Nino and Rena Rouge was with Carapace and both Nino and Alya appeared to be quite in love with and dedicated to the other, then there was only one possible explanation for her flirtatious behavior on that video.

If Marinette was Ladybug and Adrien was Cat Noir, it made sense that they would choose their best friends as teammates.

Pieces were coming together in ways that Gabriel wished they would not, but they did offer some opportunities if he was correct.

His first instinct was to tell Adrien the truth about his mother and himself. If he did so, Adrien might see the sense in handing over his Miraculous—if he was indeed Cat Noir—and Marinette, if she was Ladybug, might hand over hers for Adrien’s sake.

The problem was that Adrien could become rebellious at the most inconvenient times, and Gabriel did not understand his son’s mind well enough to know with certainty how he’d react to such news. Nor could Gabriel really say he understood either Marinette or Ladybug well enough to know how she’d respond. It was just as likely that if Gabriel revealed himself, they’d turn against him, using the knowledge of his identity to make _him_ give up _his_ Miraculous. Or they’d pass their Miraculouses to people he didn’t know, and he’d have to start all over from scratch.

_If_ they really were Ladybug and Cat Noir. _If_ he was right about any of this.

Gabriel told his deductions to Nathalie. “Do you have any thoughts?”

“One, sir. You’re basing your conclusion in part on Alya flirting with Carapace, but if you’re correct, then Adrien has been flirting with girls who are neither Marinette nor Ladybug for some time, despite appearing to be just as devoted to her.”

Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose. “I know. I have no idea where he would get that from. Certainly not me.”

“In his defense, sir, the only interaction he had for most of his life with females his age was Chloe Bourgeois, who frequently clings to him, tries to kiss him, and expresses certain claims on him even though he’s never given her any indication of romantic interest. Perhaps Adrien simply doesn’t know where the line between flirtatiousness and basic friendliness lies.”

Gabriel glared at her. “Are you saying this is my fault for sheltering him?”

“I would never say that, sir.” But she didn’t offer any alternate interpretation of her words.

Gabriel chose to let it pass and deal with that issue if and when they confirmed that his son actually was the shameless flirt in question. “Has your mother learned anything of interest while living in the Dupain-Cheng house?”

“I’ve gently probed, but Mom is very focused on her charges. I’m afraid she honestly doesn’t seem to be aware of much that goes on outside of her area of focus.”

“It would have been nice, but I suppose it was too much to hope for.” Asking Geneviève directly to spy on Marinette was out of the question. Despite appearances, the woman had a keen mind and a fierce loyalty to anyone under her care. Gabriel doubted the fact that he signed her paycheck would convince her to give that loyalty to him in opposition to the teens or their children.

He needed to find out for certain if his suspicions were correct, and he needed to do it carefully. The direct, blunt approached had not worked when he’d tried it with Gorizilla. And in the event he was wrong, Gabriel couldn’t risk putting either Adrien or Marinette in danger or exposing his own identity. But he _had_ to know. He was so close to saving Emilie, he could taste it. If the Miraculouses he craved really were that close, he couldn’t let this opportunity slip through his grasp.


	90. Chapter 90

“And remember, a true hero helps anyone in need, especially children. Hoo-hoo!” On the screen, Mr. Damo—no, the Owl—raised his arms to spread his cape as Adrien waved and smiled awkwardly beside him.

Marinette laughed and took the video off of full-screen.

When she looked beside her, Adrien had his face in his hands. “That was so embarrassing.”

“It was cute. It’s nice to see Mr. Damocles still trying to make the city better in his own way—as long as he remembers that he doesn’t actually have superpowers. Whose idea was it for the two of you to do that little PSA?”

“His, I think,” Adrien grumbled, but he didn’t really look as embarrassed as he could have. “I don’t know why Father agreed to it.”

“It _was_ a good message,” Tikki said.

Marinette agreed. “Now that the babies are being born, it’s nice to see people helping out wherever they can. I think it’s great that you’re using your influence to encourage good behavior.”

Adrien sighed and stood back from where he’d been hunched over next to her chair to watch the video on her computer with her. “Do you really think I’m making a difference?”

“Of course! You’re amazing, Adrien! You’re able to help people as yourself _and_ as Cat Noir! I can only do anything that matters when I’m Ladybug . . . ”

“Hey.” He put a finger under her chin, lifting it to make her look at him. “You do lots of stuff that matters, even when you’re not transformed. Everyone who knows you loves you because of how much you care and help out others.”

She blushed but didn’t argue with him. She did _try_ to help people even when she wasn’t transformed. Hopefully, at least sometimes she succeeded.

Even though it felt amazing to hear Adrien praise her, she started to get flustered because of it, so she distracted herself by scrolling through the comments on the video. Most of them were nice, and no one had anything bad to say about Adrien, but . . . “Oh, no. There’s a couple trolls on here. Where are the moderators?”

Adrien leaned over to read the comments. “ ‘Who’s this lame old man?’ ‘He’s not a real superhero.’ Hey, they can’t say that about him!”

Plagg floated by. “Weren’t you just embarrassed to be seen with him?”

“N-no!” Adrien protested. “Anyway, that’s different. I was embarrassed in a _my teacher’s so weird_ way. That doesn’t mean I don’t respect him. What they’re saying is just mean!”

Marinette nodded. “His methods may be unorthodox, but his heart’s in the right place. I sure hope he doesn’t see these.” She scrolled down, clicking the ‘report’ box on all the troll comments. “Hopefully the moderators do something about it soon.” If it was the Ladyblog, she could call Alya and get it sorted right away, but it was the website of a local news station, so she just had to hope they were paying attention.

Now that they had watched the video, she went back to browsing furniture websites. The group had decided to let her do the initial decorating plan, based on their ideas, desires, and suggestions. It felt great to be trusted by them like that, especially since the project was so fun that it made her giddy. They would still talk about the plans and adjust as a group, of course, but Marinette was having a blast researching and putting it all together.

It was getting late, though, so soon she had to wrap it up and get ready for bed. Even though she still hadn’t fully recovered from giving birth, she was feeling better than she had been. Now that Geneviève was watching Louis at night, things were largely back to how they’d been before he was born, aside from Marinette having to screen off her desk area to pump periodically.

And the fact that she wasn’t sharing a room with a platonic friend who she was trying to get over a crush on because he was in love with someone else but rather with the boy she loved who loved her back. They still cuddled, but now holding hands and casual kisses were things they did, too. It could have been a situation charged with sexual tension, but it wasn’t. She’d been completely serious about wanting to take things nice and slow for a good, long while, and she believe he had been, too. The cuddles and sweet kisses she shared with Adrien made her deliriously happy, but the thought of doing anything more made her heart thump with stress—almost panic—instead of desire. They’d get there when they were both ready and not a moment sooner. Even still, some part of her had confused feelings about it, so she was looking forward to moving into the house and sharing a room with Alya and Alix, which would be a much less complicated and confusing situation.

When she came back to her room after getting her shower and popping in to say goodnight to Louis, Adrien was lying on the chaise, reading.

“How’re the decorating plans going?” he asked.

“Really good. I’m having a lot of fun. I am trying not to deliberate too much about it, though. I’m sure you’ll be glad to have a bed of your own again.”

“I will,” he agreed, “though I’ve gotten used to sleeping on the chaise. It’s not so bad.”

“Liar,” she said with a smile. For a second, she considered asking if he wanted to share her bed like they’d accidentally done that one night. But no. Now that they were together, there were all kinds of things he might think she was offering if she said that, so they’d have to talk about it, and that would be so embarrassing she’d probably melt. So she just leaned down to kiss him good night, warmed by the softness of his lips on hers. “Goodnight, My Kitty.”

“Goodnight, Milady.” His loving smile—neither asking for nor expecting more than she gave him—soothed the weirdness in her emotions and made her eager for the next step in their lives together. And the one after that. And the one after that. It wasn’t the eagerness of a child at Christmas, wanting to rush into opening every present at once. Rather, it was the eagerness of reading a beloved book series, savoring each moment of each book to the fullest before the delight of moving on to the next in its own time.

#

Hawk Moth watched through his magical link as the Dark Owl stood on the roof behind Marinette's terrace. “Remember our deal, Dark Owl,” he growled. “You get me the jewelry that those two kids are wearing, and if they really are Ladybug and Cat Noir, then you’ll be left as the only hero Paris needs.”

“I understand, Hawk Moth,” Dark Owl answered, removing something from his utility belt.

“And _don’t_ injure them,” Hawk Moth said.

#

A faint sound woke Adrien. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he listened and heard it again about ten seconds later. Standing, he moved his head to try to get a read on where the sound was coming from and heard Marinette moving in her bed. She sat up on her knees.

“It’s coming from the terrace,” she whispered.

“One of our teammates?” he asked. They all knew where she lived and might approach this way if there was an emergency. He picked up his phone, not finding any texts from anyone.

“Maybe,” Marinette said uncertainly. “I’ll look.”

“Be careful.” He wanted to offer to check it instead, but the hatch was right above her bed, so she’d have rejected his suggestion anyway.

He saw Tikki zip into Marinette’s nightgown to stay close as she went up. Once the hatch closed again, Adrien waited, expecting that if it was one of their teammates, they’d come in momentarily.

Nothing happened, except he heard another sound from up there, different from the first.

Dropping his phone on the chaise, Adrien went up to investigate, trying not to get too worried. It hadn’t been a loud sound, so it was probably something small. Maybe a bird got injured and fell, and Marinette was trying to figure out what to do. As he got up to her bed, he felt Plagg nestle into his pocket, reassuring Adrien that he could transform in an instant if there was trouble.

When Adrien poked his head out of the hatch, he didn’t see Marinette. With growing concern, he got up onto the terrace. Maybe she’d left with a teammate? But she wouldn’t do that without telling him. Looking at the ground, he saw two pebbles and a strange, metal ball.

_Something’s not right._ “Plagg, claws—”

Another metal ball came from somewhere behind him, landing with a _tink_ on the floor. Gas instantly spewed from it, cutting off Adrien’s words as he tried not to inhale it. But it got into him anyway.

_Sleeping gas_ , he realized as his legs gave out. He turned to fall on his back and saw a familiar villain appear from behind the chimney at the back of the terrace. Adrien only had enough time to feel a wordless flash of panic before he lost consciousness.

#

“What are you doing?!” Hawk Moth demanded. “Just take their jewelry and leave!” He watched with fury as the Dark Owl hoisted the two kids onto his shoulders.

“You’ll have their jewelry,” Dark Owl said, “ _after_ I’ve seen if these two really are Ladybug and Cat Noir.”

“That wasn’t the deal!” Hawk Moth tightened his hold on the villain, but Dark Owl withstood the pain he caused with only a grunt.

“I’ll prove I’m a real hero!” Dark Owl snapped. “Ladybug and Cat Noir defeated me once. But I won’t let them do it again. I want a rematch, and this time, I’ll defeat them and prove that I’m better than both of them put together!”

Hawk Moth ground his teeth. But he let Dark Owl explain his plan and eventually relented. “Fine. I suppose that will serve my purpose just as well. But if they do transform, you had better defeat them and take their Miraculouses. And you are _not_ to attack them unless they transform. Challenge me again, and I’ll take your akuma. Got it?”

“Of course, Hawk Moth. I’m a hero, after all. I don’t hurt anyone who can’t fight back.”

#

Marinette felt someone shaking her awake.

Adrien’s voice faded in. “Marinette? Marinette? Are you okay?”

She blinked and sat up. “Yeah, what—where are we?”

“I don’t know. I just woke up a few seconds ago,” Adrien answered.

They were in a small room, maybe ten by ten. She thought it was a room, but it might also have been some kind of box, since there were no doors or windows. “How did we get here?”

“Dark Owl,” Adrien said.

She looked at him in surprise, then smacked her forehead. “We should have had someone keep an eye on him. Wait. He came after _us_?”

Adrien nodded gravely. “Yeah. I’m sorry, Marinette. I should have tr—changed before I came up to check on you.”

“And I could have been more careful leaving the house in the middle of the night. But regrets won’t help us right now. The bigger problem is that—”

He put a finger to her lips and flicked his eyes around the walls. She followed his gaze and saw lots of small cameras paired with what could have been microphones. “No doors or windows, but lots of cameras,” she said. If they were being watched and listened to, then she and Adrien needed to be careful about what they said, but Tikki and Plagg—if they were here—would be able to move freely, since they couldn’t be recorded.

Apparently Tikki had caught her message, because the kwami peeked out from under the hem of Marinette’s nightgown. Marinette gave her a nod, and Tikki flew out. “Plagg, let’s see if we can disrupt the electronics.”

Plagg appeared from Adrien’s pocket, and the two kwamis investigated the cameras. The surveillance devices were placed too high on the walls for either Marinette or Adrien to reach, and even if she stood on his shoulders to reach them, they were embedded into the walls in a way that made her doubt she’d be able to pull them away.

While the kwamis were doing this, the single TV screen on one wall turned on, showing an image of the Dark Owl. “I’m glad to see you’re awake.”

Marinette stood and demanded, “Why have you kidnapped us?”

“Why do you think, Ladybug?” he asked. Which confirmed that he could hear them and that he knew or suspected their identities.

She exchanged a worried glance with Adrien, but stuck to playing dumb. “Ladybug? I’m not Ladybug. I’m just a normal girl.”

“That’s funny,” said Dark Owl. “Hawk Moth said you might be Ladybug. He wanted me to simply take your jewelry from you to find out, but I had a better idea. You see, some have claimed that I’m not a real hero. In order to prove to the naysayers that I am a real hero, I will fight both of you and win. If you really are Ladybug and Cat Noir, that is.”

Adrien clenched his fists. “Heroes don’t fight other heroes, Dark Owl. If you’re a real hero, why don’t you go fight Hawk Moth?”

Dark Owl actually appeared to consider that for a moment. Then he shrugged. “I’ve already made the deal, and a deal is a deal.”

“You’re not going to get your fight from us,” Marinette said. “Please, just let us out. We’re not heroes. We’re just normal teens. Normal teens with a baby who needs us and parents who’ll be worried when they find out we’re gone.”

The outline of a butterfly appeared over Dark Owl’s face. Whatever Hawk Moth said to him, it made his expression harden. “Hawk Moth assures me that your families will be fine without you for a while. It needn’t be that long. Just transform, break out of there, and fight me. If you win, you can be home within the hour.”

The frustrating thing about that was that he was probably right. The Dark Owl wasn’t a terribly difficult villain to beat. He was straightforward, just your standard array of heightened abilities and a selection of gadgets. Certainly not up to the standards of Hawk Moth’s more recent villains. As far as Marinette could see so far, his powers haven’t even been upgraded, though the trap he’d set for them had.

Tikki flew over to them, but Marinette didn’t look at her directly. She couldn’t give any indication that there were kwamis in the room with them. “I’m sorry, Marinette,” said Tikki. “The power source and mechanics for them must be somewhere at the end of the wires. To find them, we’d have to leave you. I don’t want to do that. What if he attacks suddenly and you need to transform?”

“We don’t know where we are,” Marinette muttered, hoping that from Dark Owl’s perspective it sounded like she was just examining their situation instead of communicating with an invisible being. “Dark Owl could be just on the other side of any of these walls.”

Plagg said, “And if his goal is to confirm your identities, then getting a first-hand look at our magnificent selves would do as well as seeing you transform.”

Marinette gave a small nod and looked at Adrien.

He was watching her, hoping she had a plan.

“It’s your choice,” said Dark Owl. “There’s no rush. No whipped cream will come out of the floor this time. No bomb on a timer. But I’m not going to feed you, and there aren’t any bathroom facilities in there.”

She grimaced. She could deal with being hungry for a while, but being forced to pee in a corner while Adrien was in the room was a much more daunting threat.

“The real heroes will rescue us,” said Adrien.

“That’s right!” Her team was out there. Marinette patted herself, but she didn’t have any pockets in the nightgown. Which meant she didn’t have her phone.

Adrien checked his pockets, but he was sans phone as well.

They couldn’t call their friends, and they couldn’t contact them via communicator without transforming. “They’ll find out we’re missing in the morning,” Marinette assured him.

He nodded. “Right. And then they’ll come save us. All we have to do is wait.”


	91. Chapter 91

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to mention that after posting chapter 89, I went back and added a scene where Marinette and Adrien visit Fu. So if you haven't read that part, you might want to go back and read it.

Alya was in her bedroom, feeding Keva, when her phone rang. She was surprised to see Marinette’s mom as the caller. “Hello?”

“Alya! Have you seen or heard from Marinette this morning?” Sabine sounded worried. Not quite frantic, but definitely worried.

Which sent Alya’s adrenaline spiking. She disengaged Keva, stuck a pacifier in her mouth, and returned her to her crib. “No. What’s wrong?”

“Neither she nor Adrien are in her room or anywhere in the house,” Sabine said. “It’s too early for them to have gone out, and even if they did, they’d have left a note. And I found both of their phones in her room!”

That was definitely a bad sign. “I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about,” Alya said. “I’ll check around with some of our other friends to see if anyone’s heard from her. Maybe they just went out for an early coffee date or something.”

“I didn’t see their pajamas in her room. Do you think that means they might still be wearing them?”

“I’m sure they’ll be fine,” Alya said, even as her heart picked up speed. “I’m on it.”

“Thank you, Alya. I’m going to keep calling around. Please let me know if you hear anything.”

Alya got dressed in record time, then burst into the living room, startling Nino. He’d been sleeping on the couch ever since Keva was born, to help during the night. He was awake already but not dressed yet. He shot to his feet. “Alya? What’s wrong?”

“Adrien and Marinette are missing,” she said.

“What?!”

She barged into her big sister’s room. “Nora, can you watch Keva for a bit? Nino and I have to go out. Marinette and Adrien are in trouble.”

Nora—who _had_ been sleeping—sat up. “Trouble? Need anyone pounded?”

“We’ll call if we do,” Alya assured her. “For now, maybe Keva can have some cousin time with Yemaya?”

Nora waved her away. “Sure, sure. Go on. I can handle one more baby for a few hours.”

Half an hour later, Rena Rouge and Carapace were standing on the roof of the school with the rest of their team, minus Ladybug and Cat Noir.

“What’s with the emergency meeting?” King Monkey asked.

Viperion looked toward Marinette’s terrace. “Aren’t Ladybug and Cat Noir coming?”

Now that they were all here, Rena Rouge didn’t waste time. “No. They’re missing.”

“What?” King Monkey gasped.

She couldn’t see Pegasus’s eyes through his sunglasses Miraculous, but his jaw dropped.

Viperion said in a level voice that wasn’t at all calm, “What do you mean?”

Even though it was at least an hour before school was to start and there was no one in the courtyard yet, Rena lowered her voice. “Marinette’s mom called me this morning. It sounds like Marinette and Adrien disappeared from Marinette’s room some time during the night. I went in to check and couldn’t find their kwamis either. And neither of them are showing up on our communicators, so I don’t think they’re transformed right now.”

“Someone took them?” Viperion guessed.

“They wouldn’t take off on their own without telling one of us,” said Carapace.

They’d never discussed who would be leader in the case of Ladybug’s absence if Cat Noir was also missing. But Rena was the one who’d gotten the first alert about the problem, so she went ahead and put out her plan. “I think we should spread out and look for them. Maybe Hawk Moth got them or maybe it’s one of his villains—or maybe it’s an unrelated problem. But it could have been hours since they disappeared by now. If all they had to do was transform and get themselves home, they would have. They haven’t done that, which means they need our help.”

Viperion nodded. “I think Pegasus should stay here and watch the school. Detransform and get closer if you need to investigate, but don’t get stuck in class. We may need you to use Voyage on short notice.”

Pegasus nodded. “All right. Can do.”

Carapace told him, “See if you can find anything on the internet. Our boy’s famous, so if he’s out somewhere, someone might post about him.”

“Right.”

“Carapace and I already checked Adrien’s room in the mansion,” Rena said. “We couldn’t investigate the whole mansion with his dad and the staff there, but someone might want to take a closer look.”

“I can do that,” said Viperion. “I’ll use Second Chance if I get spotted.”

“Then Carapace, King Monkey, and I can comb the city and see if we can find anything,” said Rena Rouge.

Everyone agreed, and they went their separate ways in search of their friends.

Two hours later, they were no closer to finding Marinette and Adrien than they were before. As they were running across rooftops, three communicators beeped at once, and Rena Rouge, Carapace, and King Monkey came to a stop to answer it.

The group call was from Pegasus. “I may have something to report.”

“What is it?” Rena Rouge asked.

“It might be nothing,” said Pegasus, “but Principal Damocles didn’t come in today.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” asked King Monkey.

“Some scathing comments were left on his Owl video that was posted last night,” Pegasus explained. “They were removed by this morning, but he might have seen them before that.”

Carapace frowned. “You think he got akumatized and went after Adrien and Marinette?”

“Why would he?” asked King Monkey. “They wouldn’t leave comments like that.”

“I don’t know,” said Pegasus. “I just wanted to report the anomaly.”

Pegasus’s face on the screen was replaced by Viperion’s. “It’s possible. And it’s the only lead we have. I searched every room in the mansion, but I couldn’t find anything unusual. Only a few household staff doing their jobs and Nathalie working at her desk.”

Rena scowled. “But why would Dark Owl take Marinette and Adrien? Or why would Hawk Moth tell him to? You don’t think Hawk Moth discovered their identities somehow, do you?”

No one answered that, and a tense silence fell over the group.

“Let’s keep looking,” Rena said. “There’s got to be some sign of them somewhere.”

#

Marinette didn’t know how many hours had passed. Since there were no windows in their box room, only lights in the ceiling, she had no idea what time it was. “It has to be late morning by now,” she murmured.

“Probably.” Adrien had his arm around her, the two of them sitting together against one of the walls. Their kwamis were sitting on Marinette’s knees. “I’m sure the heroes are looking for us.”

“I’m sure they are,” she agreed. “But I doubt they have anything to go on. If they haven’t found us by now, it means they don’t know where to look. _We_ don’t even know where we are.”

“I . . . kind of need to pee,” Adrien said timidly.

“Me, too,” Marinette responded. “And I’m thirsty.”

Dark Owl hadn’t come back on the screen to taunt them or try to persuade them to transform again. He’d just let them stew in their own isolation. But they had no reason to think he wasn’t still watching and listening.

Plagg floated up in front of her face. “Are you sure you don’t want us to go check things out? We can be sneaky when we want to.”

Marinette sighed and shook her head, then lowered her voice to as soft as she could make it, hoping the mics didn’t pick it up. “If Hawk Moth suspects us this strongly, then he already basically knows.”

“Marinette, don’t give up yet.” Adrien hugged her closer.

Tikki flew up to hug Marinette’s cheek, and Marinette cuddled her friend close.

“It’s not giving up. It’s facing facts. Somehow, we slipped up or Hawk Moth learned something or . . . I don’t know what, but he thinks it’s us and we have no way to prove to him that it isn’t. Even if we got out of this without transforming, he would still suspect us. He’d come after us again and again until he got confirmation, and maybe next time he’d surprise us well enough to get our Miraculouses. If Dark Owl hadn’t wanted a fight, he could have taken them while we were unconscious, and it would all be over already.”

“Marinette, what are you saying?” Adrien’s eyes were gentle and worried.

She cupped his cheek. “We knew this time was coming. We might as well get ourselves out of here now. Hopefully Hawk Moth hasn’t come out to see the show in person.”

Adrien was silent for several seconds as what she was saying sunk in. “I trust you, Marinette. And I’m with you forever, no matter what we call ourselves.” He kissed her softly.

“Me, too, Adrien. But we’re not out of this fight yet. I’m sure we can do something useful even without our Miraculouses. But first, we’d better get out of here and let our team know we’re okay.”

Adrien smirked. “Sounds good to me, Milady. I just hate that this mediocre villain is the last one we’ll get to fight.”

“Hey,” protested Plagg. “Don’t count your yolks before the eggs are broken, kid.”

“Uh, Plagg,” Adrien said, giving his kwami a confused look, “I don’t think that’s the saying.”

“We all trust you, Marinette,” said Tikki.

“Thank you. All right.” She and Adrien got to their feet, and she looked directly into one of the cameras. “Spots on!”

#

The Dark Owl took less than five minutes to defeat, and soon Ladybug and Cat Noir were running over rooftops toward school with Mr. Damocles in Cat Noir’s arms.

“I was akumatized all night?” the principal said in shock. He was wearing his suit, which meant he hadn’t even gone to bed before being akumatized. “And it’s tomorrow now?”

“ ’Fraid so,” Cat Noir answered. “But don’t worry; you didn’t do anything too destructive.” _Except_ _expose_ _our real identities_ _to_ _Hawk Moth._ The principal, at least, had forgotten the information as soon as he’d been deakumatized. Hawk Moth, on the other hand, they had to assume knew them for certain now.

When they reached the school, they were surprised to find Pegasus standing on the roof. “Ladybug! Cat Noir!” he shouted. It was clear from the tone of his voice that their friends _had_ been searching for them.

Cat Noir hopped down and delivered Mr. Damocles outside his office before returning to the roof to join Ladybug and Pegasus.

“Where have you been?” Pegasus asked. “Was it the Dark Owl again?”

“Yeah, it was,” Ladybug said. “And it’s kind of a long story. We’d better gather everyone.” She opened her communicator.

Once everyone was on the line, Rena was the first to speak. “Ma—Ladybug! And Cat Noir? Where have you two been? We’ve been searching everywhere! We thought you’d been kidnapped.”

“We were,” Ladybug answered.

Several of their teammates gasped.

“We need to meet,” Ladybug said. “There’s been a very serious development. We’re on the roof of the school, so come meet up here.”

Very soon, the whole team was on the roof, staying away from the edges so hopefully they wouldn’t get spotted by the students below.

Rena threw her arms around Ladybug, and Carapace gave a similar greeting to Cat Noir. Despite everything, it was nice to know his friends cared about him enough to worry that much.

“Does anyone else know we were missing?” Ladybug asked.

“Your parents, of course,” Rena said. “And your mom probably called Adrien’s dad. I’m not sure who else she might have talked to.”

Viperion looked to Pegasus. “Have you heard anyone talking about it here?”

Pegasus shook his head. “I tried to stay inconspicuous so I wouldn’t be forced to go to class, but I haven’t heard anyone mention you two disappearing specifically. Though some people are finding it strange that more than half our class is out today. Only Ivan, Rose, Juleka, Mylène, Sabrina, and Chloe are actually there. It didn’t look like Miss Bustier was bothering to even teach a normal lesson.”

Viperion’s gaze shifted between the Ladybug and Cat Noir. “What’s wrong?”

With a deep breath, Ladybug said, “Hawk Moth learned my identity. And Cat Noir’s.”

Gasps. Exclamations. Viperion asked, “How?”

“We don’t know how, only that it happened. He suspected us, somehow, and had Dark Owl kidnap us, knocking us out before we could transform. Then he locked us up where you guys couldn’t find us, forcing us to transform in order to get away while he watched it on camera. The only reason he didn’t take our Miraculouses while we were unconscious is because Dark Owl wanted a fight.”

Rena cursed under her breath. “I hope he doesn’t plan to make that video public.”

Pegasus shook his head. “I haven’t seen anything about it yet, though it’s possible he’ll release it later.”

“I don’t think he wants to out us,” Ladybug said. “I think he wants to use our identities against us. And he will. Probably soon. You’re all in danger. Everyone we know is in danger.” She was working herself up into a guilty frenzy again, Cat Noir could tell.

He put an arm around her waist just as Viperion stepped forward and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Ladybug,” Viperion said, catching her eye, “if we’re in danger, then you’ve already given us the power to protect ourselves. And because of that, we can protect the other people around us, as well. We can handle this. We’re a team. The two of you aren’t in this alone anymore.”

Ladybug’s breathing calmed, and she gave him a grateful smile. “You’re right. Thank you. I’m going to need to rely on all of you a lot more from now on. All of us are. Because . . . because we’re not going to be able to be Ladybug and Cat Noir anymore. We’re going to have to find replacements.”

The team didn’t like the sound of that. There were protests and assurances.

Cat Noir held up his hands, trying to quiet them. “It’s all right, guys. We knew this was coming one way or another eventually. But we’re not going to abandon you completely. Right, Milady?”

She nodded. “Right. We’ll find a way to be around and help the new Ladybug and Cat Noir get used to things, but you’re all going to have to help them, too. They’ll have important roles, and we’ll be throwing them into the deep end, with Hawk Moth sending out more powerful villains than ever.”

“Are you sure you have to do this?” asked Rena.

Ladybug nodded sadly. “I don’t want to, but we have to. And soon. In fact, you should probably all stay active until we find replacements, just in case Hawk Moth tries something.”

“By ‘active’,” Kim asked, “you mean . . . ?”

“Stay transformed today,” Ladybug answered. “We need to do this fast, so we’ll need to hand over our Miraculouses to someone else within a matter of hours.”

Rena gasped. “That fast?”

Ladybug sighed. “I know. I hate it, too. But we have to.”

Cat Noir scratched absently at the suit covering his chest. He’d lose Plagg after all. Today. He thought he’d have more time. He was going to miss the powers and the freedom, but he thought he would miss his friend even more.

“Who are you going to give them to?” Viperion asked softly.

“I don’t know yet,” Ladybug answered. “I may not know even once they’re chosen.” She took a step backward, away from the group. “Cat Noir and I have to go talk to someone very important. You’ll all have to keep an eye on things until we come back, okay?”

Rena nodded. Carapace saluted and said, “You can count on us!”

Ladybug took Cat Noir’s hand, and they ran across the rooftops. As they ran, he squeezed her hand and smiled at her.

“I’m so sorry we have to give this up,” she said with tears in her eyes. “I know how much it means to you.”

“Not as much as you do, Milady. As long as I have you, I’ve got everything in the world.”

#

Gabriel returned to his atelier, so exhausted that he had a low-grade headache. When he entered, Nathalie got up from her desk. Given how heavily pregnant she was, it was not a smooth motion, but she did her best under the circumstances.

“Are you all right, sir?”

Gabriel eyed her. “You haven’t been here all night, have you?”

“I slept for several hours in the library. How did it go? I haven’t seen anything about it on the news.”

Gabriel worked hard not to drag his feet as he moved into the foyer and slumped into a chair. Even if Dark Owl hadn’t actually been doing anything most of the time, maintaining the connection had been tiring, not to mention staying awake all night. “I got my answer, but not the Miraculouses.”

There was a sharp inhale of breath behind him, and then Nathalie’s hands were on his shoulders, rubbing gently. “So, they really are . . . ?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry, Gabriel. This must make things difficult for you.”

“On the contrary, it makes them easy. Now that I know who they really are, and that they’re so close, I have ample opportunity to take their Miraculouses. Talking them into giving them to me isn’t entirely off the table, either. Perhaps if I make some gentle inquiries to gauge how they might react . . .”

Nathalie’s hands were massaging his shoulders now. It felt rather nice. “So, you’re not going to attack them?”

“Not if I don’t have to. I don’t _want_ to fight my son, nor the girl he loves. I only want Emilie back.”

“Does this mean you’ll stop akumatizing people?”

“Not necessarily. There are still the rest of the Miraculous holders to consider. I’ll have to think about it. But for now, I need to sleep.” Gabriel hauled himself to his feet and headed for his bedroom. “Take the rest of the day off, Nathalie, go home, and relax. I’m sure you didn’t get enough sleep, either.” He stopped and looked at her over his shoulder: the tiredness in her eyes she tried to hide, the large belly that she pretended didn’t affect her at all.

His assistant was carrying his child. His son was his arch-nemesis. What would Emilie think of all of this once he got her back?

Suddenly, Gabriel felt even more exhausted than before.


	92. Chapter 92

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really doubt there's a Chuck E. Cheese in Paris, but let's just imagine that in this world there is one. ;)

Marinette walked with Adrien through a pair of double doors and into a dim, noisy place that smelled of cheap pizza and nachos. “First a movie theater, now this,” she said, mostly to herself. “Does he actually get these jobs or just put on a uniform and pretend?”

There was something weirdly nostalgic about the chaotic monument to cheap entertainment that was Chuck E. Cheese. She’d gone to a few birthday parties here as a kid but hadn’t been back in years. The arcade games, carnival games, and ball pit had been so exciting to her younger self, she must have missed how creepy the animal mascots were and how sticky the floor was.

When she looked beside her to Adrien, his eyes were wide with awe. “This place is amazing,” he breathed, watching a group of kids running around with party hats on.

She laughed and took his hand. “I guess you’ve never been to a place like this.”

“Father would never have allowed it, even if anyone had invited me.”

Not for the first time, Marinette wished she could have met Adrien sooner. Maybe she wouldn’t have gotten so flustered around him if they’d met before she noticed boys were different from girls, and maybe then she could have helped him have a more normal childhood. “I guess we could have one of your birthday parties here,” she said, and his face lit up. “But we should probably wait a few years so we can at least pretend it’s for one of the kids.”

He grinned bashfully. “Yeah, I guess we could do that.”

The two of them wandered around, looking for Master Fu. It was hard to find him with all the kids running around.

“Here for a job application, kids?” asked a voice behind them.

They turned to see Master Fu looking up at them, wearing an employee uniform.

Marinette glanced around and followed his lead. “Uh . . . yeah!”

“Why don’t you come to the back, and you can fill one out?” Master Fu led them away from the main area, through a door marked _Employees Only_. They continued down a narrow hall and into a small office, where Master Fu sat behind a desk. The name tag on the desk said, _Peter Molier, Manager_.

Marinette didn’t even want to ask.

She sat in one of the chairs in front of the desk. Adrien locked the door and took the other.

“We’re not going to get in trouble for being here, are we?” Adrien asked.

Master Fu shook his head. “I have my ways. But never mind that. Why have you come to see me? Has something happened?”

Marinette took a deep breath, clasped Adrien’s hand, and said, “Hawk Moth discovered our identities.”

“What?!” Master Fu shot to his feet and slammed his hands onto the desk in shock.

Adrien winced. “We’re sorry, Master Fu. We don’t know how it happened, only that it did.”

With a look of weary defeat, Master Fu fell back into his chair. “Tell me.”

They told him what had happened with the Dark Owl.

“This is terrible,” Master Fu said, rubbing his forehead.

Tikki and Plagg had come out but not yet participated in the conversation. Longg also floated near Master Fu.

“It’s not their fault,” Tikki said. “Please don’t blame them, Master.”

Master Fu rested his hands on the table. “I don’t, Tikki. But you all know what must be done. You need to give me your Miraculouses. Replacements must be found immediately.”

“Why?” The unexpected outburst came from Plagg. “If Hawk Moth wants to come, let him come. We can take him. It’s about time we get this thing over with.”

Adrien poked his kwami fondly. “It’s not that simple, Plagg. We’re too easy targets when we’re not transformed, and we can’t stay transformed all the time. Hawk Moth could have had our Miraculouses tonight if Dark Owl hadn’t had a different plan.”

“You want to get rid of me?” Plagg whined.

“Of course not! But we don’t have a choice.” Adrien’s voice became very soft as he added, “As much as I wish we did.”

Marinette asked, “Master Fu, who will you give them to?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. The Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses are the most difficult ones to find matches for. There is a great deal of responsibility in holding them, as you two well know.” He looked into Marinette’s eyes. “You chose many of the others yourself, and at one time you were to be the next Guardian. Who do you think they should be given to?”

Marinette was surprised to be asked, but she gave it some thought. “I don’t know, Master Fu. I know a lot of good people, and I’m sure many of them would be great superheroes. Even for these two Miraculouses, I think we have some good options. Rose, Mylène, Ivan . . . others, too. I guess it’s not so much that I can’t think of anyone but that I can think of too many people. They all have their own strengths. Should we just pick two of them and go with it?”

Master Fu stroked his chin in thought. “Choosing a holder for any given Miraculous is more than choosing a person who is worthy of a Miraculous.”

“Like how I’m good with the Black Cat but wasn’t so good with the Snake,” Adrien said quietly.

“Perhaps,” Master Fu said. “Marinette, do you have any ideas of how you would choose one from the others? With the way things are, we cannot afford to be without a Ladybug or Black Cat for any length of time, but it is far too dangerous for the two of you to continue in those roles. A choice must be made today.”

She chewed on her lip. “It’s so hard to choose. What if I choose the wrong one? What if I’m wrong and _none_ of them are the right choices? It would be so much easier to just know who ended up being the new Ladybug and Cat Noir and go give them the . . . ” She trailed off as a thought occurred to her. Turning her head, she saw Adrien’s eyes lighting up with the same thought. “Master Fu, I have an idea!”

#

Alix’s room was on the first floor of the hospital, the window facing a garden path on a side of the building that didn’t get a lot of foot traffic. This convenient fact allowed Ladybug and Cat Noir to slip in without being spotted by anyone on the outside.

They’d expected to see Alix’s surprised face when they entered. What they hadn’t expected was to instead find Nathaniel sitting beside Alix’s bed, sketch book in his hands, staring at them with wide eyes and his mouth gaping like a fish.

“Ah, hello,” Ladybug said, waving at him from just inside the window as she and Cat Noir stood there awkwardly. “We came to see Alix? The reception desk said she wasn’t seeing visitors but didn’t say why.”

“You know Alix?” Nathaniel asked.

Cat Noir closed the window so they wouldn’t be overheard, then sat on the windowsill with one foot pulled in close and the other dangling. “We’ve run into her a couple times. You’re Nathaniel, right?”

“You know _me_?” Nathaniel asked, his voice squeaking.

“Sure,” answered Cat Noir. “You got akumatized once. And there was the other time when Reverser was after you and you helped us out.”

The shocked look still hadn’t left Nathaniel’s face. “You remember that?”

Ladybug moved a little closer to him. “Sure. We try to remember everyone we help, and we always remember those who help us.” Her gaze slid to Alix, who was lying in the bed, sleeping. “That’s why we’re here. We were hoping Alix could help us.”

Nathaniel looked from Ladybug to Alix. “Help you how?”

“Well, uh . . . ” Ladybug hid the Miraculous box she was holding behind her back. “That’s kind of a secret.”

Nathaniel caught the movement. “You want to give her a Miraculous, don’t you?” The surprise on Ladybug’s face must have been all the confirmation he needed. “I don’t blame you. She’d be a great superhero. But she’s not really up for it right now.”

Ladybug moved closer to sit on the end of the bed, holding the Miraculous box in her lap. There wasn’t much point trying to hide it when Nathaniel had already guessed. “Are you sure? She hasn’t used this one before—not in the present, anyway—but we know it’s meant for her. There’s something we need her to do. It’s not fighting, though, just some reconnaissance.”

Nathaniel set his sketch book aside. “What do you mean ‘not in the present’?”

Ladybug exchanged a look with Cat Noir, but he only shrugged, trusting her to decide how much to tell their friend. “This Miraculous allows the holder to travel through time. We met a future version of Alix who came to our time to help once or twice. That’s how we know she’s the right person to use this, even though the present Alix never has. We need her to go into the future to get some information for us.”

Nathaniel shook his head. “I’m sorry, Ladybug, but she can’t do that. Not right now. She had . . . that is, she had a difficult birth several weeks ago.” His face pinked with shame, as if he’d personally caused her injuries. “And then there were complications. She had a bad night last night. Even if she hadn’t, she’s still recovering. There’s no way she’s up for taking a solo trip to another time without backup.”

He was taking this whole time-travel thing surprisingly well, accepting the concept so quickly that his entire concern was on whether it was _safe_ for her to do it rather than if it was really possible for her to. And he made a good point. Alix really wasn’t looking particularly good.

Ladybug sighed. “I understand. I had hoped she’d be well enough to do this simple thing, but there _can_ always be danger when going into the unknown.”

“So, what now?” Cat Noir asked.

Nathaniel’s fists clenched, his face hardening in resolve. “This should have been Alix’s job, right?”

“Well, sort of,” Ladybug answered.

Nathaniel stood and held out his hand to her, palm up. “Then that makes it my job.”

Ladybug blinked at him, somehow both surprised and not surprised at his volunteering for such a dangerous, crazy mission. She should have known not to underestimate someone’s bravery just because he was an introvert. “Nathaniel,” she said, “the Rabbit Miraculous is extremely powerful. I can only give it to someone who I have complete trust in.”

His hand fell, and so did his expression. “And you don’t trust me. I don’t blame you. It’s not as if you know me.”

“No, Nathaniel,” she said. “I told you that so you’d know how much I do trust you.”

He looked at her, hopeful and wary. “Why would you?”

Ladybug glanced to Cat Noir, still sitting on the windowsill. He gave her a small, twinkling smile. “Should we show him?”

“Show me what?”

Ladybug smiled. “Who we really are.”

“What?!” Nathaniel yelped with understandable shock. “Why would you do that?”

“So that you’ll know that we trust you because we do know you,” Ladybug said. “And because if you really want this Miraculous, you’ll know in a few minutes anyway. We decided a little while ago that there would be no secret identities amongst our team anymore.”

Nathaniel’s expression was one of absolute amazement. “O-okay, yeah! I’d love to join your team!”

Cat Noir got off the windowsill and stood at Ladybug’s side. Together, they detransformed.

Nathaniel’s eyes were almost impossibly wide as he stared at them in silence for five solid seconds. Then his expression softened into a small smile, and he let out a huff of a laugh. “So I had a crush on you twice.”

Marinette blushed that _that_ would be his first reaction.

Adrien draped an arm across her shoulders and told Nathaniel. “I don’t blame you. I fell for her twice, too.”

With a tinge of embarrassment, Nathaniel averted his eyes.

Adrien’s gaze drifted to Alix. “But you’ve got your sights on a different girl now, don’t you?”

Nathaniel glanced back at her, but Alix was still asleep. “Yeah. I do. I hope one day she’ll be _my_ partner, and partners cover for each other, right? So if this time-travel thing would have been her responsibility, that means it’s mine now. If you . . . will let me, that is.”

In answer, Marinette stood before him and held out the Miraculous box. “Nathaniel Kurtzberg, this is the Miraculous of the Rabbit, which grants the power of time-travel. You will use it for the greater good.”

With eager awe, Nathaniel took the box from her and opened it. In a flash of light, the white rabbit kwami appeared.

“You’re not Alix,” Fluff said.

Marinette didn’t question how _this_ Fluff knew Alix should have been her owner, but the fact that she wasn’t was probably why the magic didn’t stop Fluff from saying her name. “Fluff, Alix can’t be Bunnyx right now, so you’re going to work with Nathaniel instead, okay?”

Fluff bounced around, taking in Nathaniel and the sleeping Alix. “Is today tomorrow or yesterday? When will I have already seen what I haven’t yet?”

“What are you?” Nathaniel asked.

Now that one kwami was out, Tikki and Plagg came out from where they’d been hiding behind Adrien and Marinette. Nathaniel watched all three kwamis with a childlike grin.

“They’re called kwamis,” Adrien said. “They’re magical beings who give us our superpowers.”

“ _And_ a lot of very good advice,” Plagg added.

Adrien raised an eyebrow at him. “A lot of very questionable advice.”

“Like when I said you should make Marinette your girlfriend?”

“You also compared girls to cheese. Repeatedly.”

Tikki tackled Fluff in a hug that left the two of them pinwheeling through the air. “It’s so good to see you, Fluff! Be nice to Nathaniel. He’s a good person.”

Fluff’s head jerked from Nathaniel to Alix in confusion.

Marinette had no idea what Fluff knew of the future or how she kept everything straight (as straight as she did keep it, anyway), but she thought she had an idea why the kwami was confused. “Fluff, I’m not sure if the future you guys are going into is the same future that Bunnyx came from. Things have taken some strange turns. Bunnyx hasn’t shown up to try to correct anything, but I don’t know if that’s because the timeline is still on track or because the Bunnyx of the future doesn’t exist in our timeline anymore. But we have to work with what we have now. Can you do that?”

Fluff bounced around in the air some more, examining all of them in turn, but finally said, “Now is now and then is then. What will happen isn’t what has happened, even if it happened before.”

“I . . . think that’s a yes,” Marinette told Nathaniel.

He held up his finger to Fluff. “It’s really nice to meet you, Fluff.” Instead of shaking it, Fluff gave his fingertip an affectionate nibble. He laughed and patted Fluff on the head, then his expression grew serious as he looked to Marinette. “So what is it I’m supposed to do, exactly?”

Marinette and Adrien sat together on the windowsill, and Nathaniel sat across from them on the end of Alix’s bed.

“I’ve got some bad news,” Marinette started. “Today, Hawk Moth found out about our identities. It’s too dangerous for us to keep being Ladybug and Cat Noir. We need to find replacements.”

“What?” Nathaniel gasped. “No! That’s terrible!”

“It is,” Adrien agreed. “Especially since we don’t know how he found out. But we have no reason to think that any of the rest of the team’s identities are compromised, so at least there’s that.”

“The situation is too dire right now to risk choosing the wrong holders,” Marinette explained. “Hawk Moth’s been coming at us hard, so whoever we choose needs to be able to learn the ropes very quickly. We can’t risk making the wrong choice and starting over, because the wrong people might slip up and let Hawk Moth get the Miraculouses. So what we want you to do is go into the future and find out who Ladybug and Cat Noir are so you can come back and tell us who the Miraculouses should be given to.”

Nathaniel’s eyes narrowed as he considered that. “Wouldn’t that create a paradox?”

“We need a new Ladybug and Cat Noir today. We don’t have time to worry about paradoxes.”

Adrien nudged her, smirking. “Was that a pun?”

“No. Now, listen. To try to avoid as much risk of timeline contamination as possible, don’t tell us how far into the future you go—or anything but the bare minimum of what you see there once you return. If you’re really worried about paradoxes, I suppose you could see if any future Ladybug or Black Cat Miraculous holders will return with you to our time, to fight Hawk Moth with our team until he’s defeated, and then return to their time.”

Nathaniel still didn’t look convinced by the idea, but he was clearly thinking it over. “I can see why you don’t have this Miraculous in play all the time. There’s a lot of potential to mess things up.”

“That’s true,” Marinette agreed. “But we trust you. As the holder of this Miraculous, it’s your call how things are done. You know what we need. Find a solution in your own way.”

“You guys really trust me that much?”

Marinette nodded. “We do. Alix wouldn’t have been able to do it either way, with her current condition. I don’t think it’s pure chance that we found you here.”

Her words made him sit up straighter, determination settling once again over his features. “I won’t let you down. How do we do this?”

Fluff explained (with some translation help from Tikki) about the transformation phrases, his weapon, and powers.

When she was done, Nathaniel gripped the pocket watch Miraculous and said, “Fluff, clockwise.” Brilliant light flashed across his body, leaving a brand new superhero standing before them.

Marinette tried her best to bite back a giggle, but it was hard. He was just too cute.

Nathaniel’s rabbit superhero costume was pure white, with lop ears hanging from his head—the insides a pale blue, the only spot of color on the costume, aside from pale blue paw pad marks on the soles of his feet—and when he twisted to examine himself, Marinette saw an actual fluff ball tail at the small of his back. Marinette had no idea if there was some practical purpose to that or if it was as decorative as Cat Noir’s bell. There were a few other embellishments, like a collar and cuffs, which gave the very slight impression of a suit. With all that white, his red hair stood out dramatically, mostly similar in style to how he normally wore it but brushed away from his face enough to not impede his vision.

Adrien didn’t even try to fight back his giggle, but Marinette elbowed him before he got much of it out. “What?” Adrien whispered. “He’s adorable.”

“You have no room to talk, Mr. Neck-Bell.”

Adrien pouted and pretended to ignore her. “So, what’s your superhero name?”

Their friend glanced at himself in the small mirror hanging on one wall. “Ah, White Rabbit, I guess.” He stuck the Miraculous in a slim pocket on the stomach of his suit, where it somehow left no visible bulge under the fabric. The umbrella that had appeared in his hand when he transformed, he stuck at his side like a fencing sword.

“Ready to go?” Marinette asked him.

“Absolutely.” He glanced back at Alix. “Keep an eye on her? I know she’s just sleeping, but . . . ”

“You’re worried,” Adrien said. “We get it.”

“We’ll wait for you right here,” said Marinette. “But you should be able to return soon after you left, no matter how long you’re gone for.”

“Oh. Right. Well, here goes.” He pointed his umbrella at a wall. “Burrow!”

A glowing, white circle appeared, and White Rabbit stepped through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I had a note here asking about the rating/warnings, but I think I've gotten enough responses to see that the consensus is to be to leave them as they are. If you'd like to share thoughts about how this fandom uses them or the expectations people have about them, particularly in regards to the ratings, I'd still be interested to hear them.)


	93. Chapter 93

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please forgive the digression with this chapter. The time travel stuff will be relevant, but this chapter is mostly me just playing around. There's enough here for three chapters, but I made it one so that people aren't reading for days thinking, "When is she going to get back to the story?" So there's still at least one more chapter of time-travel, but the next one will be more directly relevant. (Not that this one is entirely irrelevant.)

The inside of White Rabbit’s Burrow looked like an art gallery with walls, floor, and ceiling of luminescent white. Frames hung all around, the images contained within them blurry. Each had a small plaque beneath it.

_This is unreal_ , White Rabbit thought, moving farther in, exploring the uncanny space.

Everything had happened so quickly, he was still trying to wrap his brain around it all. Ladybug and Cat Noir, the heroes he’d idolized for so long, had been his friends and classmates the whole time.

No, it went beyond idolizing. All of Paris idolized them—or at least admired them as the heroes they were. He’d drawn a multi-issue _comic book_ about them. In it, he’d made himself a hero alongside them, like every beginner fanfic creator ever. Except most people making fanfic didn’t go to freaking _school_ with the actual stars of the story.

His face grew very hot. _Oh, man._ He’d fanboyed _so hard_ over them, in his own way.

Then again, they _had_ ended up making him a hero in real life, too. So maybe they didn’t think he was a fanboy. Maybe they really did like his comic as much as they always claimed to.

He wished he’d thought to make his superhero form (in his comic) an animal-themed one. True, Mightillustrator was a revamp of Super Nathan, who he’d created before actual superheroes even showed up. In making him Evillustrator, Hawk Moth had only given him what he’d already wanted, powers-wise. (Even though he knew he’d been technically evil at the time, he still secretly wished he could have remembered being akumatized. He didn’t want that power enough to let Hawk Moth akumatize him again or anything, but it was a shame he couldn’t remember actually being able to change reality with only his pencil.) And he’d started his Ladybug drawings before any of the other heroes besides Cat Noir had shown up, so it wasn’t like he could have known they’d all be animal-themed. But he should have guessed. Maybe he would talk to Marc about switching up their hero personas in the comic.

Wow, Marc was gonna freak when—

Well, no. He couldn’t tell Marc.

Another realization came like a smack to the face. Marc had named his daughter after Ladybug! No wonder Marinette had reacted the way she had. At least she’d been flattered by it instead of weirded out.

Man, that was going to make it even harder not to tell Marc. Hopefully Marinette would be able to tell him about it one day, at least.

Really, though, finding out Marinette and Adrien were Ladybug and Cat Noir was surprising, but not in an _I never saw it coming_ kind of way. It was surprising in the way that the end of a good mystery novel is surprising, when the secret is revealed and the main reaction is, _Why didn’t I see it? The clues were all there!_

And there was the question of who the rest of the team—the rest of _his_ team, now—were. If he shared a class with two heroes (and a would-be third), why not more? He wasn’t the only one who’d started to notice how many people in their class came up with excuses to leave or quietly vanished whenever someone got akumatized, even if it happened on the other side of the city.

And Nathaniel was an artist who was marginally obsessed with superheroes. He’d spent hours sketching each of the heroes on Ladybug’s team. He knew the lines of their faces as well as most people knew what clothes they had in their closet. And he may not have made as many sketches of his friends, but he had made some, and he’d already noticed some similarities. Not enough to have actually made him suspect they really were the heroes, but enough that, now that he knew about Marinette and Adrien, he had strong suspicions about the rest of them.

Maybe when he met them, he’d guess their identities before they even introduced themselves. It wasn’t really in his nature to state that kind of thing with confidence when it was just a guess, but if he was right, it would be worth the effort to see the looks on their faces. And he was pretty sure he was right.

He heard beeping and pulled the pocket watch out of his pocket. There had been five black dots around the face of the watch before (which was a strange way to tell time, but whatever), and there was only one now.

_Crap, how long have I been standing here thinking? Get it together!_

He had a job to do, and he was about to run out of time to do it.

Looking more closely at the framed, blurry images, he saw that each one had a plaque with a year written on it. There was no time left to carefully consider each and choose the best one. If he deliberated too long and ended up back at the hospital without even having gone anywhere, he’d be too ashamed to face his friends and heroes.

The plaque on the first frame said, _52 B.C._ That wouldn’t do him any good.

The next said, _1830 A.D._ Closer, but still no good.

The third said, _7045 A.D._ He was tempted to touch the image just to make sure the Earth was still around at that time, but he had to move on, and that year was way too much of an overshoot.

When his Miraculous started beeping an urgent warning, he reached the fourth plaque, determined to choose this one if it was at least a habitable year that wouldn’t immediately kill him, so he could feed his kwami and try again. It nearly made his knees weak with relief when the fourth plaque was labeled with a year only a-hundred-and-five years in the future.

He touched the image within the frame, and it went from blurry to sharp, a skyline half-familiar and half-strange, the air crisscrossed with flying vehicles. The sci-fi nerd part of him thrilled at the sight, but he didn’t let himself get distracted again. With his Miraculous blaring a near-constant beep, he stepped through the frame.

He fell to his hands and knees on a hard surface, his transformation disappearing in the same moment as the opening to the Burrow. Nathaniel groaned softly. Had any of his friends ever had a worse first go as a superhero? He doubted it. But there was no time for self-doubt. He was here now, and he needed to focus on his job. Everyone was counting on him.

Nathaniel stood up and looked around, hoping his entrance hadn’t been witnessed. He didn’t see anyone, so maybe luck was on his side.

It was hard to tell if he’d arrived in the same physical location that he’d left. He _was_ inside a building, and there was an outer wall in the same place as the one in Alix’s hospital room. But the interior walls were farther away, creating a room about four times the original size. The floor wasn’t the same white tile that it had been, but instead a single sheet of glossy, grey . . . was it marble? Sealed concrete?

Instead of a single hospital bed, there were a bunch, packed together in a way that emphasized maximum occupancy over patient privacy or comfort. Fortunately for him, though, all the beds were empty and stripped of all but a single sheet each.

He moved around, his sneakers unnaturally loud in the empty room. A flash of white near his head startled him, but it was only Fluff, bouncing around erratically as she did. “I need to feed you, don’t I?” Nathaniel asked her, remembering what Adrien and Marinette had told him. “What do you eat?”

“Carrots are good,” Fluff said. “Anything from a garden works.”

“I should have guessed that. Let’s see what I can find.”

He moved toward the closest door, but it opened before he reached it, and a man appeared.

Nathaniel froze. Considering how empty the place was, he was pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to be in here, but he had no idea what to say to explain his presence. At least Fluff had darted into his jacket pocket as soon as the doorknob had turned.

The man spoke to him in a gruff voice. Or rather, he made several syllables at him which the man gave every appearance of intending as speech, though it certainly wasn’t French. When Nathaniel gave the man a guilty but uncomprehending head shake, the man frowned, crossed his arms, and said in French, “What are you doing in here? This part of the hospital is closed to all but maintenance staff.”

Having not been high in the man’s esteem already due to being where he wasn’t supposed to be, Nathaniel had clearly dropped even further by not understanding whatever weird language he’d spoken. As if he should have known. Even though this was France, where people spoke French.

Unless this wasn’t France anymore.

That thought made Nathaniel go slightly lightheaded, so he pushed it aside and blurted, “Sorry! I got lost while I was looking for a bathroom!” Coming up with excuses on the fly was definitely harder than he’d given his hero friends credit for.

The man appeared to accept this, though, but judging by the look he gave Nathaniel, it was because he assumed Nathaniel was stupid enough to do something like that. He jerked his head behind him. “It’s not here. Come on.”

Nathaniel obediently followed the man, head lowered, watching his surroundings while half hiding behind his bangs. The hallway looked different, but he was pretty sure it was the same hospital building he’d been in when he’d left his own time. The man led him out of the building and onto a walkway. Where there had been a paved street before, there was only a broad stretch of lawn.

Pointing down the walkway, the man said, “Bathroom’s in that first building to your right. Follow the signs.” He crossed his arms and stared at Nathaniel, waiting for him to go back to where he was allowed.

Nathaniel hurried down the walkway, but he was unable to keep his eyes off the sky. Smooth, oblong crafts sailed through the air with faint hums. _Flying cars_ , he thought. _We finally have flying cars._ He desperately wanted to try one, of course, but he doubted there would be a naturally-occurring opportunity to. Below the flying cars, buildings rose even higher into the sky than they had in his time, with a few exceptions. The building he’d just left didn’t look drastically different on the outside, but the ones in front of him were at least twice the height they had been and significantly remodeled into something sleek and stylish.

Nathaniel didn’t go into the building the man had pointed to but kept going past it, turned a corner around the building, and finally found a street.

The road and sidewalks were packed and busy, but still orderly. The cars (the ones that had wheels and ran on the ground) didn’t look like anything he’d ever seen, but they were still recognizably cars, and they were all moving with the sort of coordinated precision that made him wonder if self-driving cars were now the norm. As Nathaniel walked down the busy sidewalk, people crowded around him, but no one bumped into him more than lightly. At first glance, the place was some kind of futuristic utopia, the sort of thing that people in his time could easily envision as their future.

But there was something strange that couldn’t be ignored, and as Nathaniel made his way down the sidewalk, moving into a shopping area, where he kept his eyes peeled for something to feed Fluff, the strangeness began to bother him more and more.

The main language he heard people speaking was whatever that maintenance man had spoken to him first. The language wasn’t German or English or Spanish or any other language that Nathaniel could recognize. Certainly, there were a whole lot more languages in the world than he’d ever been exposed to, but it was strange that something he’d never even heard of had, in a hundred years, become more commonly spoken in Paris than French. Oh, there were still people speaking French, but from the snatches he heard as he passed, it seemed mostly to be coming from older people, those with shabbier clothes, and those gathered in lively groups of three or more.

And while Paris always had some degree of linguistic diversity, Nathaniel also heard more foreign languages that he recognized than he ever did on a normal day in his time.

He didn’t know what to make of it.

And then the crowd before him parted just a little, and he saw something that made his heart jump into his throat. A woman in a bright pink suit was strolling down the street in front of Nathaniel, engaged in conversation (in that strange language) with her companion, who was absolutely, without a doubt, some sort of lizard creature.

A four-foot-tall, yellow-skinned, bipedal lizard creature. With large eyes, a wide mouth, and a jaunty crest on its head.

All the breath left Nathaniel’s body, and he nearly collapsed to his knees. A passerby caught him by the elbow with a friendly smile and helped him stand. Nathaniel couldn’t understand the words the man spoke to him, but he smiled and waved to assure him he was okay, then moved to the side of the building nearby and leaned against it, catching his breath.

He watched the crowd more closely, standing still as people passed, looking into the windows of cars that went by. There were more lizard people. At least one for every five humans. Some were yellow, some orange, some green. Some with spots or stripes or crests. All shorter than most of the humans, and all with the same large eyes and wide mouths.

No apparent teeth, though. They looked more like leopard geckos than alligators. Which was good.

_Aliens_ , Nathaniel concluded. _It has to be aliens._ _Extraterrestrial. Extra-dimensional. Or maybe some science experiment gone horribly awry._

His brain was on total overload. Extraterrestrial intelligent life was a major spoiler. _I don’t think I should be seein_ _g this._ The urge to seek answers was nearly overwhelming, but a prod from his pocket reminded him that Fluff still needed food, and he still had a mission to complete. And finding out more about aliens on Earth was not it. So he put his head down, tried to be as inconspicuous as possible, and looked for a place that sold vegetables.

A couple blocks down, he came across a small produce store tucked between a café and a store with strange markings etched on the window. He leaned against the wall, getting out of the flow of pedestrians.

“Fluff,” he whispered toward his jacket pocket. “I don’t have money from this time. Can you get what you need for yourself?” He hated the idea of stealing, especially since he had no idea what the penalty for theft was in this strange time, but he didn’t have any real options. He felt a rustle against the back of his jacket, which was probably Fluff phasing through it.

While Nathaniel waited, he looked at the strange markings on that shop window. There weren’t even any pictures to indicate what kind of store it was. His ignorance of the strange language made him feel like a foreigner in his own city.

The reality of his situation hit him like a sledgehammer. He _was_ a foreigner. The Paris he knew clearly didn’t exist anymore. In the present that existed for him in this moment, everyone he knew was dead. If something happened to him to separate him from his Miraculous or Fluff, he’d never see any of them again, the same as if they’d all suddenly died in a nuclear explosion or something. Worse, he’d be trapped in a city he didn’t understand, with none of their money or any identity documents, only speaking a language that was clearly on its way out, with a literacy and education level that was likely to leave him living on the street.

He didn’t realize he was beginning to hyperventilate until he found himself gasping for breath. A couple of girls a little older than him stopped and asked him something in worried tones as he was doubled over, trying to get air. He forced a smile and waved. They looked dubious but went on their way.

_Hurry, Fluff_ , he mentally begged her. Was there a name for the fear of being stranded in another time? Because he had developed an acute case of it. _I am not the right person for this Miraculous_ , he thought as he gradually got his breathing under control. _Alix would be so much better at this._ But she was out of commission for the time being, and someone had to step in. He was honored to have been trusted with the task. But when he got back, when Alix was better, he’d be happy to give this Miraculous back to her. Maybe if he did a good job with it, Ladybug would give him a different one. One more suited to him.

His pocket rustled, and a faint voice said, “Ready, Master!”

Nathaniel breathed a sigh of relief and slumped back against the wall. Fluff was fed, she was back, and he could transform any time he wanted and get out of here—as long as he wasn’t attacked in some way that prevented him from saying the transformation phrase. Or separated from his Miraculous. He shoved his right hand into his pocket and wrapped it around the pocket watch. Why couldn’t he have had a piece of jewelry that wouldn’t easily fall off, like so many of the others? Who had thought it was a good idea to make the Miraculous that could _strand you in another time forever if you lost it_ (not to mention would give whoever found it the power to literally change history and not get caught doing it) something that had to be physically carried around with no way to attach it securely? He didn’t even have zippered pockets. At least his supersuit gave him that. His regular clothes were far too easy to pickpocket—or it could even fall out on accident.

He was desperate to get out of this strange place, but as long as he was here, he could at least try to find an answer to the Ladybug question. Mentally reassuring himself that he could transform the moment he felt threatened and that keeping his secret identity wasn’t that important in the distant future, Nathaniel made his way down the sidewalk, weaving through the crowd as unobtrusively as possible.

As he walked, he observed the people around him. Bright colors seemed to be in fashion, which was fortunate for him, as his purple pants and orange shirt blended in just fine. The next time he came close to one of the lizard people on the street, he slowed his steps to keep pace, watching the being as much as he could without staring. It was difficult to determine gender, but the being seemed friendly enough as it talked with the human it walked with. He didn’t dare risk taking out his phone to snap a picture (the technology would surely mark him as an anomaly to investigate, and he needed to keep a low profile), but he observed as closely as he could, committing the lizard person’s face to memory so he could sketch it as soon as he got his hands on some paper.

He almost walked by a bookstore before the sign caught his eye. When it did, he stopped to look closer. The word _Books_ was written in French and what he assumed was the lizard language, as well as (in smaller lettering) English, Spanish, Russian, and what might have been Chinese. A bookstore was always a good place to find information, especially one that went to the effort of catering to everyone as much as possible.

The door opened automatically when he stepped on the mat in front of it, and he went in. What he found wasn’t exactly what he’d expected. Instead of rows and rows of bookshelves filled with books, there were rows of some sort of computer interfaces with screens and slots that appeared to be meant to connect to small devices. There were printed books along the walls, but he wasn’t surprised to see that the store apparently catered mostly to readers of electronic books.

The bookstore was empty of customers besides Nathaniel; the only person he could see was a stocky, older man standing behind a counter. He had a friendly look to him, something about his appearance vaguely familiar enough to naturally set Nathaniel at ease.

The clerk said something to Nathaniel—a greeting, probably, but in that strange language. When Nathaniel didn’t respond, the clerk switched to French. “Hello, son. Can I help you?”

Nathaniel walked to the counter, his hand tightening nervously on the watch in his pocket. “Hello. I hope so.”

The man smiled. “Have a particular title in mind?”

Nathaniel had to be careful. How could he get the information he needed without making it obvious that he wasn’t from here? “I’m . . . interested in superheroes.”

“Ah. Of course. We have access to several thousand comics collections. Or are you more interested in novels?”

“I’m more interested in . . . real superheroes.”

There was no recognition on the man’s face. _That must mean there aren’t any active today—at least not in Paris._

“I heard there used to be some,” Nathaniel added.

The clerk looked at him strangely. “Real superheroes? Wherever did you hear that?”

Nathaniel shifted his feet. “Just people talking. Rumors, I guess.”

The clerk scratched his beard. “I’m surprised a boy your age still believes in fairy tales like that.”

“Fairy tales? So you have heard of them?”

Laughing, the man said, “Sure.” He leaned on the counter, relaxing into the conversation.

Since this was going well, Nathaniel tried the direct approach. “Have you ever heard of one called Ladybug?”

“Hmm.” The clerk thought about it for a few seconds. “My grandpa used to talk about a hero by that name when I was a tyke. Ladybug and . . . hmm, she had a sidekick, I think.” The man laughed again. “Grandpa Ivan told such lively stories about them, he had me convinced they were real.”

With a strange feeling in his gut, Nathaniel’s gaze strayed to the sign behind the clerk, where the full name of the bookstore was written in multiple languages: _Bruel Books._

Nathaniel swallowed and forced himself not to react. “Sounds like he was a good guy.”

“One of the best,” said the clerk, growing wistful. “I wish my son could have met him. But, like so many others, Grandpa Ivan died in the war.”

Startled by the mention of Ivan’s death, Nathaniel asked, “What war?” and immediately regretted it.

The clerk’s eyes narrowed, staring into Nathaniel as if trying to read his mind. “You’re an odd boy, aren’t you? When you came in and didn’t understand The Language”—he said it as if it was capitalized—“I assumed your parents were luddite nationalists. But they always teach their kids about how the war ruined the world and made it easy pickings for the Saviors.”

_Call me crazy, but ‘saviors’ and ‘easy pickings’ aren’t terms that usually go together._ Nathaniel thought quickly and came up with, “I . . . don’t really have parents anymore.” It was technically true, in that his parents were dead in this present time. “I’m on my own, and there’s a lot I wasn’t taught. So I’m trying to learn. I thought I’d start with history, so I can understand why the world is the way it is.”

The clerk’s expression softened with sympathy. “I get it. We don’t have many books on history, though. The Saviors got rid of the records of what happened before they took over and changed the calendar. Not that there aren’t books, of course, but they’re hard to find because they’re illegal. Too risky for me to carry.”

“But what about museums? What about the Louvre?”

“The what?”

The peaceful utopia that Nathaniel had seen outside was looking less and less peaceful or utopian. “Never mind. So . . . they came after the war you mentioned?”

The clerk nodded. “The world had torn itself up pretty badly by then. Some countries resisted the Saviors—not that they called themselves that at the time—but it didn’t do any good.”

“Did France resist?”

“Nah. France and the rest of what used to be the European Union surrendered immediately. That’s why it’s so nice here. The nations that resisted . . . well, let’s just say the only humans left from those countries are the ones smart enough to have fled before things were finished.”

Nathaniel wanted to throw up. _That explains all those other languages in Paris_ , he thought. “So . . . this isn’t peaceful cohabitation with the aliens.”

“Most people your age think it is. People my age pretend it is because everyone’s happier that way.”

_No. Nope. Nuh-uh. One-hundred-and-five years is not far enough in the future for me to_ _be okay with_ _alien overlords._ Nathaniel took a deep breath and tried to calm his pounding heart. He needed to focus on his mission. He’d gotten what he’d come here for. Not only was there not a current Ladybug or Black Cat, but even the knowledge of their ever having existed was relegated to fairy tales. “Thank you, Mr. Bruel. You’ve been very helpful. I’m afraid I can’t give you money for the information you’ve shared, so I’ll pay you in kind.”

The clerk chuckled. “And what information does a boy like you have to share with me?”

Nathaniel took the watch out of his pocket and smiled at the clerk. “Everything Ivan told you about Ladybug and Cat Noir was true.” Before the clerk could do more than cock his head, Nathaniel said, “Fluff, clockwise,” and light flashed over him, turning Nathaniel into White Rabbit, and turning the clerk’s expression of bemusement into slack-jawed shock.

White Rabbit slid his Miraculous into his pocket and zipped it closed. While Ivan’s grandson watched, White Rabbit called for his Burrow, stepped through the glowing doorway, and closed it behind him.

_Well, that was a bust_ , he thought as he stood in the magical room. A small part of him was desperate to go back home where it was safe, but the greater part of him was set on pressing on. He couldn’t go back empty-handed and tell Marinette that he’d failed. He just couldn’t do that. So, no matter how scared he was, he walked from frame to frame, looking for one labeled with a year he could use. He couldn’t go farther forward; he needed to go back and find a time when a superhero was still around.

The first frame he came to that was labeled with a year between this one and his own was fifty-three years into his future. “This should do,” he said, putting his hand on the image. The blurry image sharpened, but all he could see was a brick wall. He frowned. That was less than helpful. But he didn’t want to wait until he nearly lost his transformation again, and if there was a trick to finding the exact time he wanted in the Burrow, he didn’t know what it was, so he steeled himself and stepped through.

He barely had time to register that he was in an alley before a sharp impact to the back of his head knocked him to his knees. Considering the force he’d been hit with, there was surprisingly little pain, for which he must have had the superpowers to thank. He rolled to the side and sprang to his feet, facing his attacker in a fighting stance, umbrella in hand.

There were three of them: grown men dressed in worn, black, military-style gear. One wore a helmet that covered his eyes, and the other two wore masks over the lower halves of their faces.

“What—” White Rabbit started, but they didn’t give him a chance to finish.

One of the men lunged toward him with the butt of a rifle. The other two raised their guns at him and shouted for him to stop.

Acting on pure instinct, White Rabbit used his umbrella to knock the first man away, deflecting his blow, then opened the umbrella to shield himself from the shots fired by the other two men. Bullets pinged off the umbrella and ricocheted around the alley. One of the men cried out in pain.

White Rabbit leapt to the top of the building to his right, clearing three stories in a single bound. He dove toward the center of the roof as the sounds of more shots followed him up, along with shouting by the men for him to stop running.

“You tell me to come back while you’re shooting at me?” White Rabbit muttered in disbelief. He could hear the heavy feet of the men leaving the alley, but he guessed they were trying to find a way up to him, so he didn’t have much time.

From the relative, temporary safety of the rooftop, White Rabbit looked around the city and was horrified by what he saw.

Destruction. Smoke. Barricades and barbed wire. He hardly recognized the skyline, though the Eiffel Tower still stood. Sirens rang out somewhere in the distance.

_The war_ , he thought. Beeping drew his attention to his pocket, and he checked his Miraculous. Three dots left, and no sign that vegetable carts even existed anymore.

When he heard shouting and footsteps on the floor below him, White Rabbit took off, leaping across rooftops in his flight from the soldiers (or whoever they were). He had to watch his footing, as many of the buildings either had no roofs or the roofs were full of holes and fragile, but with the help of his umbrella to keep his balance and change direction in mid-air, he managed. It would have been exhilarating if he weren’t so terrified.

Unfortunately, that trio of soldiers weren’t the only ones around. He kept seeing other groups of soldiers on the streets as he passed overhead: sometimes patrolling, sometimes hassling unarmed people. Once, just as he leapt from roof to roof, he heard a gunshot and looked down to see a body fall to the ground and a soldier standing over it with a rifle. White Rabbit kept running.

_This has to be a world without Ladybug_ , he thought. _There’s no way she could exist and the city still be like this._

He was looking for food—any food—to feed his kwami so he could return to his Burrow and try a different time. But from this high up and from this speed, he didn’t see anything that looked like a place to get food. If the people who lived here had food, they were hiding it well.

_I need to get closer_ , he thought as his watch beeped a two-minute warning.

He’d been moving toward where he thought the school was, based on the location of the Seine and the Eiffel Tower. Luckily, he was right, as he discovered when he leapt onto the roof and looked down into the courtyard.

To his surprise, the building was still in use. There were kids down there, moving quickly and silently to their classes as armed soldiers watched them, two standing guard on either side of the school entrance. Scowling at the scene, White Rabbit knew there was nothing he could do here. Even if he fought those armed guards and freed the kids, there was nowhere for them to go. And while the school no doubt had food somewhere inside, he couldn’t risk being seen and having to fight his way to it. Maybe his supersuit was bulletproof, but it wasn’t a risk he wanted to take.

A guard looked up, saw him, and shouted.

White Rabbit ran, launching himself from the roof to one of the neighboring roofs. He made a half-circle, not wanting to go far because Marinette’s bakery was nearby, and it was worth checking if the place had any food in it.

He dropped to the street and hid behind a wall, hoping the soldiers didn’t decide to chase after him.

They did. Two of them came around the corner of the school, running down the street in his direction with rifles up. He would have to either fight them, hope they didn’t see him, or abandon the plan to check the bakery. His snow-white suit didn’t make hiding a viable option in this dirty, charcoal-grey city, and he was running out of time before his transformation dropped. He needed food for Fluff. His normal clothes wouldn’t be any better camouflage than his supersuit, but they would make him a lot more vulnerable. And if he got caught by those soldiers as his normal self, they’d definitely search him and take his Miraculous—if they didn’t shoot him on the spot.

With his heart beating so fast he wasn’t sure how he was still conscious, White Rabbit prepared to fight the two armed soldiers. Their footsteps pounded down the street toward him. _This is it_ , he thought. _I’ll catch them by surprise when they pass this corner._

_Three, two, one!_ White Rabbit leapt out from the alley, umbrella drawn, open, and pointed at the soldiers. They staggered in shock, surprised by his strange and sudden appearance.

Just as White Rabbit raised his umbrella to attack, two more people shot out from hiding places on either side of the street and ambushed the two soldiers. Before White Rabbit was even sure what was happening, knives were in the soldiers’ necks, blood shot out like fountains, and the soldiers fell to the ground.

The strangers grabbed the soldiers’ weapons and slung them over their shoulders. While the man patted the soldiers down and pocketed various items, the woman grabbed White Rabbit by the arm.

“Come with us,” she said fiercely.

White Rabbit stiffened in fear. Those two had just killed two men in front of him with ruthless efficiency. What did they plan to do with him?

Maybe she saw the fear in his eyes, because the woman added, “We’re here to help you. Come on.”

White Rabbit didn’t have a whole lot of choice. If they really did want to help him, he couldn’t afford to refuse.

As the man with her dragged the two bodies into the alley to try to hide them, White Rabbit let the woman pull him along and into a building that he recognized as the bakery—though it had definitely seen better days.

There was no food on the shelves, and it looked like there hadn’t been any for a while. In fact, the whole place appeared uninhabited. The woman dragged him by the arm up a flight of stairs. The walls on the second floor had mostly been destroyed, and the stairs going any higher than that were gone, but there was one wall standing between the rest of the area and what had once been a bathroom. As his Miraculous beeped again, White Rabbit tried to hide behind the wall.

The woman tugged him back. He could have pulled free, but he didn’t want to anger her. She eyed his pocket. “What’s that sound?”

“It’s not dangerous.” Moving slowly, he unzipped his pocket and took out his Miraculous, keeping a firm grip on it in case she tried to snatch it. She didn’t, but her eyes widened. As they watched, the final dot blinked, about to disappear. “Please,” he said. “Let me go. I won’t run, but I need to put a wall between us.”

Her eyes narrowed, but she released him.

White Rabbit dove behind the single wall the instant before his transformation vanished in a flash of light. Nathaniel caught Fluff in his hands and tensed, expecting the woman to come around the corner. She didn’t, but he could hear that she was still there.

He had so many questions, but he asked the most important one first. “Do you have any food? I don’t need much, only a bite or two.”

After a few seconds, there was a grunt of acknowledgment, some rustling, then a hand holding the corner broken off of some kind of protein bar reached around the edge of the wall. He took it with thanks and offered it to Fluff. She didn’t look happy, but she ate it.

“Fluff, clockwise.” When he once again had the protection of his suit and powers, White Rabbit felt a lot better. He was curious about these people and why they’d helped him, but not so curious that he wanted to risk his life to find out. He was about to call for his Burrow and leave when he heard footsteps.

A man’s voice said, “Are you okay, Rose?”

_Rose?_ A jolt of shock distracted White Rabbit from his plan to leave. There had been something familiar about the woman, but it couldn’t be . . . He looked around the edge of the wall to see the man giving the woman a brief but passionate kiss.

“I’m fine, Ali. Were we seen?”

“No.” The man faced White Rabbit’s hiding place.

“Prince Ali?!” White Rabbit blurted.

The man smirked wanly. “Heh. ‘Prince.’ Haven’t heard that in a while. But I see my reputation precedes me. Ali, at your service.”

“And I’m Rose,” said Rose.

White Rabbit gaped at them, mentally matching them up with the versions of them from his time. They were both in their mid-sixties, but their bodies were all wiry muscle and there was a sharpness like daggers in their eyes.

“Rose?” White Rabbit asked, coming closer. “It’s really you?”

Her face softened enough that suddenly he really could see his friend. “You know me?” She tried to move closer, but Ali put a protective arm around her waist.

“I, uh, probably shouldn’t say,” said White Rabbit.

Ali eyed him. “You’re an odd fellow. Where are you from?”

“I . . . probably shouldn’t say that, either. Why did you two help me?”

“I was wondering that myself,” Ali said, looking to Rose.

She made another move toward White Rabbit, and this time Ali let her go. “I haven’t seen you before, but your costume reminds me of people I have seen.” She pointed to the pocket watch that he still held in his right hand. “That’s a Miraculous, isn’t it?”

White Rabbit shoved the Miraculous into his pocket and zipped it shut. “Yes.”

“Do you know where Ladybug is?” she asked.

He shook his head. “I’m trying to find that out. You haven’t seen her, then?”

“No one’s seen her or any other superhero for a long time,” Rose answered. “When everything started happening, we kept hoping they’d show up to save us like they used to.” Her face fell. The younger Rose would have cried, but this Rose didn’t look like she had any tears left. “They never did. But now you’re here. Who are you?”

“I . . . I’m White Rabbit.”

“Have you come to save us?”

He shook his head sadly. “No. I have a different mission.”

She only looked disappointed for a second, then her expression hardened with resolve. “I understand. Is there anything we can do to help you with your mission?”

He smiled. At least some things hadn’t changed. “You already have, by saving me and giving me the food. I’d probably be dead now if you hadn’t done that, so I’m very grateful to you both.”

“Then tell us more about who you are,” Ali said, grinning. “As payment. We haven’t seen anything like you in a while, and the appearance of a hero gave my Rose hope, at least briefly. But now you’ve taken it away again.”

White Rabbit wasn’t an expert on time-travel ethics or procedures, but he couldn’t really see what harm he could do by giving them an answer. And he _did_ want to give them something for their help. “All right.” He took another step toward Rose but stayed far enough away to not be perceived as a threat. “I want to ask you what happened here, but I won’t because I probably shouldn’t know too much about my own future.”

“Your future?” Rose repeated in surprise.

White Rabbit nodded. “Ladybug sent me from the past, on a mission unrelated to whatever happened here. But when I get back, after we deal with everything in our time, I’ll try to make sure that someone stays ready to deal with all this. I’ll do what I can to keep the heroes from disappearing.”

Ali stroked his jaw thoughtfully. “If you succeed, then as soon as you leave, our present may change. We may not even remember this conversation.”

White Rabbit shrugged. “Maybe. I’m not really sure how time-travel works. Movies and things always say we shouldn’t try to change the timeline, but why would a time-travel Miraculous exist if it wasn’t meant to be used?”

Rose clasped his hands in hers. It was strange to be looking up at her. “If you can do anything to stop the heroes from leaving us, please do!” She looked more closely into his eyes. “You remind me of someone. We _do_ know each other, don’t we?”

He was about to leave here, anyway, and Ali was right that if he was able to help them, all this would likely change. So White Rabbit answered, “I . . . I’m Nathaniel.”

Rose’s eyes widened in shock and then filled with . . . regret.

“Don’t say anything!” he yelped. “I shouldn’t know about my own future!”

While she didn’t say anything about what had happened to him in this time, Rose threw her arms around White Rabbit and squeezed him tight. “We need the heroes,” she whispered near his ear. “All of us. Please.”

“I . . . I’ll do my best.” He pulled away from her. His hands were shaking. Looking from Rose to Ali, he said, “You two are in love, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Rose said, not understanding.

“Did that only happen because this happened?” White Rabbit gestured vaguely at the world around them.

The skin around Ali’s eyes tightened, crow’s feet deepening at the corners. He pulled Rose close to him. “I’d like to tell you that you’re worth the world, Rose, but . . . ”

She kissed him, smiling. “I’m sure we’ll find each other in any timeline, Ali. That’s how true love works.”

_Same old Rose_ , White Rabbit thought. _Always the romantic._ He hoped she was right, though he had his doubts. “Rose, Ali, thank you again.” Before they could tell him any more, he opened his Burrow and left them behind.

Once again in the relative safety of his Burrow, White Rabbit braced his hands on his knees and breathed deeply for a while. He didn’t know how much more his brain and his heart could take. Everything he’d learned about the future so far was terrible. The war, the alien invasion . . . it all needed to be stopped, and it was all _so_ much more important than the problems in his own time. Hawk Moth seemed quaint next to soldiers gunning people down in the streets and aliens destroying all records of human history.

White Rabbit stood straight, sucking in a breath and pushing those things to the back of his mind for now. He still had a mission. He needed to find a new Ladybug. For all he knew, all those other problems came from not having a Ladybug or Black Cat holder in his time. Maybe it was all connected. He just needed to focus on his current job and deal with the rest as it came.

It didn’t take him long to find a frame marked with a time only twenty-one years in his future. This was probably where he should have come to begin with, if he hadn’t wasted so much time spacing out. Surely, this time couldn’t be that different from his own. Surely, some Ladybug was still around, and he could track her down, find out who she was, and tell Marinette who to give the Miraculous to.

At the very least, he hoped there were no weird aliens or murderous soldiers prowling the streets.

When he placed his hand on the frame, White Rabbit saw an image of an older Tom Dupain happily kneading bread.

Feeling weary but hopeful, White Rabbit stepped through the frame.


	94. Chapter 94

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This next time-travel piece will probably be as long as the last chapter. I'd meant to do it all as one more chapter, but at this point, since it's taken me long enough already, I figured I'd just post in shorter (more normal-sized) chunks so you don't have to wait as long.   
> More time-travel notes at the bottom, but basically: it’s tricky to write time-travel, so there will be logical flaws in this. I must ask for perhaps a greater suspension of disbelief than normal where the time-travel elements are concerned.

There were no customers in the bakery when Louis arrived, which meant his grandparents had plenty of time to tease him.

“Louis, dear!” Sabine came around the counter and wrapped her arms around his waist. “It’s so good to see you!”

He hugged her back lightly. “I was just here yesterday, Grandma.”

Sabine craned her neck to look up at him. She only came up to his mid-chest, but she could be awfully fierce when she wanted to. Fortunately for him, now was not one of those times. “It’s always good to see you, no matter how long it’s been.” She released him and looked behind her. “Right, dear?”

Nothing could have saved Louis from the bear hug his grandpa gave him, lifting him off his feet with a booming, “That’s right!” Even though Louis was an inch taller than Tom, his grandpa was probably twice his weight, and only a little of that was fat. Although Louis loved his grandparents, he was grateful that, aside from his dark hair, his looks had all come from his father’s side. It had certainly been beneficial to his career prospects, at least. His younger siblings, Hugo and Emma, both looked a lot more like Sabine (aside from Hugo’s blond hair), which was fine for them, since they were both more interested in baking than fashion.

“How’s school going?” Sabine asked.

“Good. Same as yesterday.”

“How’s work going?”

“Good. I was on my way there after my last class when Mom called to ask me to come here and pick up a cake. I guess they’re having a birthday party for one of her designers.”

“Chocolate and strawberry,” Tom said, nodding. “There wasn’t enough room down here, so it’s upstairs on the dining table.”

“Thanks. I’ll go grab it.” Louis moved past them, but they didn’t let him get away that easily.

“Have you told her how you feel yet?” Sabine asked.

Louis rolled his neck in exasperation and turned around to face her. “Grandma.”

“You’re about to graduate from college,” Sabine reminded him, smiling sweetly.

Tom added, “You’ve already got work lined up. And you’ve got an apartment of your own. It’s not too early to think about settling down.”

“It’s not about settling down,” Louis protested. He’d tried to tell them a dozen times already, but they never seemed to understand. Just like his parents never understood, though they were a little less direct about the whole thing. “It’s about her not feeling the same way about me.”

“How do you know she doesn’t if you’ve never told her?” Sabine asked.

Louis leaned against the wall. It felt like he needed the support. As if his unrequited feelings weren’t enough of a burden, his family kept trying to ‘help’, which meant he kept having to explain the situation, and it never got through to them. “I’ve known her my whole life, so I think I know how to read her by now. If anything, she treats me _less_ like an actual guy than she does any of our other friends.” He slumped against the wall. Some days, it even seemed like she thought of him as the closest thing she had to a brother. “So if I tell her that I love her, it’ll only get weird. I’d rather stay a good friend than have her shut me out completely.”

The look on his grandparents’ faces made him turn and leave the bakery through the back. He wasn’t sure which was worse: the pity or the amusement.

Louis headed up the stairs, lost in his own thoughts. That came to an abrupt halt when he reached the landing on the second floor and caught someone exiting his grandparents’ bedroom.

The door clicked shut just as the two of them made eye contact, both of them freezing instantly. Louis was the first to break it, only because the guy was so strange-looking that he had to take in the rest of the guy’s appearance to fully process it. The guy looked young, based on his height, but it was hard to tell for sure with half his face covered by a white mask. The mask was part of a nearly all-white costume. A bunny costume.

_What. The. Heck._

The adrenaline that had flooded into Louis’s bloodstream subsided a little bit as he took in the guy’s appearance. He was definitely strange-looking, and he was obviously an intruder, but he wasn’t exactly physically intimidating, and the only weapon he appeared to have was a weird-looking umbrella.

So Louis stood up to his full height to look down at the guy, raised an eyebrow, and said, “You know, the term is ‘cat burglar’, not ‘bunny burglar’.”

A faint blush appeared under the guy’s mask, which was a strange reaction in itself, but then he blinked at Louis and said, “Adrien?” He blinked again and added, “You dyed your hair?”

Louis frowned. “No. Now it’s my turn to ask a question. What were you doing in my grandparents’ bedroom?” He’d noticed that the main house door was locked when he went past it on the way from the bakery to the stairs, and there was no way this guy could have snuck past his grandparents dressed like that. Which meant he must have gotten in through a window or something.

But the guy’s eyes widened, and his jaw dropped. “Louis?!”

Louis’s eyes narrowed. He’d seen more than a few starstruck expressions, and the guy’s face didn’t quite look like that, but it was hard to tell with the mask. And what other explanation was there? “So you’re some kind of obsessed fan?” His dad had always taught him to assume the best intentions and to be as tolerant of weird fan behavior as he possibly could, but surely this was crossing a line.

The guy shook his head and picked up his jaw, though he still looked like his eyes were about to pop out of his head. “Fan of what?”

“Really? You’re playing dumb?” Then again, if he was a fan, wouldn’t he have recognized Louis right away instead of confusing him with his dad? “And you didn’t answer my question. Why were you in my grandparents’ bedroom?”

The guy looked around like he was just realizing where he was. “No, I—I didn’t—I wasn’t—”

“I _saw_ you come out of there. Just now.”

The guy ducked his head, which made the big, floppy bunny ears flop even more. “I—I have to go.” He tried to sneak past Louis, as if Louis weren’t standing there watching him like a hawk.

Louis stopped the guy with a hand on his shoulder, tensed to fight him if he had to. But the guy only cringed and avoided Louis’s eyes. Definitely not the typical home invader. Had he been put up to this? Was it some kind of dare he was doing against his will? That explanation made the most sense at this point, but Louis couldn’t just let him get away. “Look, kid, you can’t break into people’s houses. You’re obviously not supposed to be here, so I can’t just let you go, especially since you haven’t told me why you’re in here.”

“I . . . I don’t think I can tell you,” the guy said.

Louis tightened his grip on the guy’s shoulder. “What’s your name?”

“Call me White Rabbit.”

Louis sighed. _Of course._ “Is that some kind of cosplay thing?” Was _Alice in Wonderland_ back in vogue?

White Rabbit shook his head, ears flopping around. “N-no. It’s . . . I’m not sure how much I can say right now. Do you . . . know about Ladybug?”

“That’s a random question,” Louis said with surprise. “Are you saying that’s some kind of superhero cosplay?”

“It’s not cosplay,” White Rabbit said, getting annoyed.

“So you’re saying you’re an actual superhero?”

“I’m not saying that. Can you tell me about Ladybug or not?”

Louis shrugged. “Sure, I’ve heard of her. Everyone has. My room when I was little even had a cool mural of her and a bunch of other superheroes. If you’re a fan of me and my dad, then you probably know that my Aunt Alya’s a blogger and the first blog she ever ran was all about Ladybug. She’s left it all up, even though Ladybug hasn’t been seen basically since I was born, so you can read everything anyone knows about her on there.”

White Rabbit was frowning. “Ladybug hasn’t been seen in that long? What happened?”

“Eh, I don’t remember the details. It’s all ancient history. Why are you interested? Did you just find out about her or something? Get on some kind of superhero kick?”

White Rabbit shook his head. “Not exactly.”

“I hate to break it to you, kid, but we were born into the wrong generation. We missed all the cool superhero stuff.”

White Rabbit shifted his feet, trying to pull away from Louis, but Louis held on. “Can you let me go? I need to find out some things.”

“So you came here to dig up dirt?” Louis asked.

“No! No, it’s not like that.”

“Then what is it like?”

White Rabbit didn’t respond.

“Well, I’m not letting you go until you give me some answers. And if you won’t give them to me, then maybe you can give them to someone else.”

White Rabbit’s body tensed. “You’re gonna call the police?”

Louis knew that was the smart move at this point. But this White Rabbit guy really didn’t seem like much of a threat, so it didn’t seem right to have him arrested—at least without more of an idea of what he was doing here. And he got the feeling that if he said yes, White Rabbit might actually make a break for it, and it was possible he was fast enough to get away from Louis. So Louis said, “No. I figured I’d take you to my parents and let them decide what to do with you.” There was no point in scaring his grandparents by letting them find out someone had been sneaking around their house.

The tension left White Rabbit’s body. He actually looked pleased with that idea. Which put a few more points in the ‘obsessed fan’ column. “You’re going to take me to Marinette and Adrien?” Louis found two things interesting about that question: that he’d put Louis’s mom’s name first (which was strange when his dad was the more famous one) and that he even knew Louis’s mom’s name to begin with. The second thing meant that White Rabbit was either really into fashion design and not just a fan of models or it was even more evidence for him being an obsessed fan. The first thing . . . Louis wasn’t sure what to make of it. Possibly, it was meaningless, simply the way the words had come out.

Louis hummed and said, “Yeah. I guess I am.”

White Rabbit nodded. “That’s probably a good idea.” Something in his pocket beeped. “But maybe I should . . . um, change first.”

“You’ve got a second set of clothes under that?” Louis asked, surprised because White Rabbit’s costume was pretty skin-tight.

“Um . . . yes?”

Louis led him to a bathroom and waited outside while the guy changed. If the beep had been him getting a text or something, and if he had been sent in here by someone else, then Louis wanted to know if he made a phone call or took long enough that he might be sending texts. The guy didn’t say more than a few muttered words that Louis couldn’t make out, though, and he didn’t take very long to change. While he was in there, a flash of light came from under the door. Louis made a mental note to tell his grandpa to check the fuse for that room. There must have been some kind of surge for the lights to flare like that.

When the stranger came out, Louis saw that he really was just a kid, maybe mid-teens. Aside from his bright red hair, he was totally unremarkable. Although there was something about his appearance that reminded Louis of someone.

“What’s your real name?” Louis asked.

The kid glanced up at him, then ducked his head to hide behind his bangs. “You should probably just keep calling me White Rabbit.”

“Fine. Whatever.” Louis pushed the twinge of familiarity out of his mind, since he couldn’t place it and the kid wasn’t going to give him an answer. “Come on.” He headed up the stairs, pushing the kid in front of him.

The kid who insisted on being called White Rabbit was not moving very willingly. “Shouldn’t we be going downstairs?”

“Gotta grab something first, and I’m not letting you out of my sight.” They went up to the living room, and Louis grabbed the bakery box off the dining table.

The kid was looking around, taking everything in, but he wasn’t trying to take pictures or anything like that, so Louis let him look. When he started examining the family photos on the walls, though, Louis became irritated.

“Is that Jagged Stone?” the kid asked.

Louis grabbed him by the shoulder and pointed him toward the door. “Yeah. Let’s go.” Something was definitely up with this guy. Sometimes he knew too much about their family, and other times he didn’t know things that even a small amount of internet research would have come up with.

When the kid grabbed a couple grapes from the fruit bowl on the table and shoved them into his pocket, Louis didn’t bother saying anything. If that was the only thing the kid wanted to take (and he sure wasn’t carrying anything else . . . not even the umbrella he’d had before), then Louis knew his grandparents wouldn’t mind.

On the way back downstairs, Louis stuck his head into the bathroom, but he saw no sign of the kid’s umbrella. Had he tossed it out a window or something? _What a weird kid._

When they got to the first floor, Louis looked around to make sure that his grandparents wouldn’t spot them leaving. He didn’t want to explain to them about this kid breaking into their house, even if the kid did appear completely non-threatening. Half hiding him with his body and half pushing him forward, Louis got the kid out through the main house door, then locked the door behind him with his copy of the key. Shoving the cake box into the kid’s hands, he said, “Don’t move.” Even though he was pretty sure the kid wanted Louis to take him to his parents, Louis moved fast anyway, in case he tried to get away. He walked around to where he’d parked his ride on the street in front of the bakery, not even glancing in so his grandparents wouldn’t see him through the window and try to catch his eye, and drove back to where he’d left the kid on the street.

“Get on,” Louis told him. When the kid did not immediately comply, Louis rhetorically asked, “What, have you never seen a mo-bi before?”

The kid stopped staring at it and said, “A what?”

_Only the most common form of transportation in Paris_ , Louis thought, wondering how this kid only got stranger and stranger the more time he spent with him. “A motorized bicycle?”

“Is that what it is?” the kid asked, looking at it again.

“I know it’s cool, but quit gawking and get on.” Louis had to practically hand-hold the kid to get him on the rear seat of the mo-bi. Then he unfolded the passenger helmet and stuck it on the kid’s head. “If you drop that cake, I’ll kill you. Okay?”

The kid paled.

“I’m not really going to kill you.”

“I know. But . . . how do I hold on?”

Louis sighed. “Figure it out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You probably don’t need to read this part if you’re totally accepting of how the time-travel stuff is going and aren’t bothered by flawed time-travel logic.  
> Time-travel is always a delicate sort of thing to write. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a time-travel story (movie, book, etc.) that didn’t have holes and logical flaws upon examination. In this story, the time-travel is there to serve the “baby boom” plot; it doesn’t exist for its own sake. If I were writing a story that was primarily about time-travel, I’d have been more rigorous about trying to make it as hole-free as I could, but while I tried to do my best with this, I know it’s got a lot of problems as far as the time-travel logic goes. I mentioned in my author note at the very beginning of this story that some of what is considered canon in this timeline (as far as season 3 episodes) is a bit fuzzy, specifically including the Bunnyx episodes. In the timeline of this story, the Bunnyx stuff happened, but we’re basically ignoring the future she came from. This story will not work out in the end to line up with that future she described. The basic reasoning I’m going with for that is that this story broke off from the canon timeline when the Fairy Grandmother event happened, and either A) Bunnyx didn’t react quickly enough to correct it before her present and herself were changed, or B) the changed timeline was as good as if not better than the previously-existing future that she inhabited (as far as she knew, not seeing into the more distant future) that, if she was even aware and able to react to the change, she chose to let the change stay (maybe there’s some general idea with the Rabbit Miraculous that you only use it to change really significant negative things, not anything that changes the timeline in any way).   
> All of which is to say: I know it’s flawed, so please don’t point out the flaws. If you want to just speculate on how the time-travel stuff might affect things or how it might play out, that’s fine, but please don’t point out the errors.


	95. Chapter 95

The kid did figure it out, one hand fisted in the back of Louis’s jacket and the other presumably on the box, and they all managed to stay on the mo-bi as it zipped through the streets.

When they reached the Gabriel building, Louis found a parking spot, set the lock, and helped the kid off the bike. “Good job not flying off,” Louis said, returning the two helmets to their compartments.

The kid clutched the cake box as if it were an egg he was afraid to drop. “Is this where your parents are?”

“Probably.” Louis called his mom to let her know what was happening, but she didn’t answer. His dad didn’t pick up, either. “Maybe they’re in a meeting. Let’s just go up and check.”

With the kid following closely behind, Louis entered the foyer of the building and approached the automatic security screeners. He went to a terminal to check out a guest pass for the kid. First he had to scan his own ID, then input the kid’s details. “Age?” he asked.

“Uh . . . sixteen,” the kid said. Did the hesitation mean he was lying or that he wasn’t sure whether to give the information?

_Maybe he’s not sure how old he is_ , Louis thought with a snort. “Name?”

The kid eyed him. “White Rabbit.”

“Your parents must have hated you, huh?” he joked. When it didn’t get a laugh, he moved on. “Height?”

“I’m not sure.”

Louis remembered how hard it was to keep track of his own height when he was a teen, so he said, “Let’s go with five-six.. Organization?” Louis bypassed the name entry field, scrolled past the boxes marked ‘job applicant’ and ‘independent contractor’, and ticked the box that only showed up for employees whose surname was Agreste. “Personal guest. Okay, now stand here so it can take your picture.”

The kid didn’t look happy about it, but he stood and let the machine take his photo. When the temp ID printed, Louis examined it and frowned. The kid had managed to hide half his face behind his hair. But it wasn’t like Louis was going to let him go wandering around, so it probably didn’t matter. Louis stuck the badge on the kid’s jacket, and they went through the security scanners.

The next room was a huge, open lobby with marble floors and decorative statues in addition to the seating. There was no one in it at the moment; there usually wasn’t. The company had no need for such a large waiting area, but it made an extravagant first impression for any guests who did show up. With the kid trailing behind, Louis headed across the lobby toward the bank of elevators.

Their progress was interrupted by two identical shrieks that made Louis spin to the left and made the kid jump so high he nearly dropped the cake. As they watched, three figures shot out of the hall entrance toward them. The twin eleven-year-old girls ran from the boy, shrieking as if they were afraid for their lives, and the boy (a year older but no more mature) cackled and held his hands up like claws as he chased them.

Louis’s ‘personal guest’ clutched the cake box and looked from the younger kids to Louis. Alarmed, he asked, “Is something wrong?”

“Unfortunately, no. They’re always like that.”

The kid tried to make himself as small as possible as the three children ran like maniacs around the lobby, jumping over furniture, hiding behind statues, and threatening to knock eight-by-ten-foot photos off the wall. Before Louis had to step in, two more people appeared from the hallway.

“Nanette! Fifine!” one of the young men barked. “Stop running around!”

With moves honed to a fine art by years of practice, the girls’ older brothers caught them both under the arms and held them aloft until they stopped trying to run in mid-air. Only when the girls finally stopped squirming did their brothers set them on their feet again, but even then, the guys kept firm grips on their sisters’ shoulders.

The boy, meanwhile, tried to run from the group, but Louis caught him. “Not so fast, Luc,” Louis chided. He looked to his friends and asked, “Where’s Coccinelle?”

“Still doing a shoot,” Daniel said. “Thanks for helping us with these three. They got bored of waiting for their turn and decided to make their own fun.”

“We’re not bothering anyone!” Nanette argued.

“You’re bothering everyone,” Daniel told her

“Why must you two always make such a menace of yourselves?” Aleron asked them.

Fifine pouted, crossing her arms. “We’re _not_ a menace!”

“Of course you are,” Aleron said without malice. “Why do you think Mom made Dad get a vasectomy after you two were born?”

“What’s a vastocomy?” Nanette asked.

Daniel frowned and shared a glance with his brother. “It’s no fun to tease them when they’re too young to understand it.”

“And you”—Aleron pointed at Luc—“I’m going to tell your parents how you’re acting. You know they’ve told you to behave at work.”

Luc struggled in Louis’s grip, but Louis knew by now how to keep hold of an unruly kid without wrinkling his clothes. Raising a dramatic fist, Luc protested, “The dragon knight fears no man!”

“Does the dragon knight fear not getting that new Nickel Stone album his mom promised him?” Louis asked.

Luc stiffened. “The most fair and gracious Lady Juleka would never renege on a promise to her only son and heir!”

“Wanna bet?”

Finally, Luc stopped squirming and muttered, “No.”

Louis sighed. “Sorry about these three,” he said, turning to look at where his guest had been standing. He wasn’t there anymore, so Louis kept turning until he saw the kid half hiding behind one of the statues. The kid’s face was so pale and his expression was so stunned, it was the first time Louis really understood the phrase, _You look like you’ve seen a ghost._ “Hey, kid. You okay?”

The kid snapped out of it—mostly—and crept toward them, but he was still staring at the two sets of twins like someone might stare at an actual unicorn.

“Have you . . . not ever seen twins before?” Louis asked, growing irritated.

“That’s—” The kid cleared his throat. “That’s not it.”

Louis looked at his friends, trying to see what the kid saw. Okay, yeah, it _was_ pretty unusual to have two pairs of identical twin siblings like that. And the dark red hair that Daniel and Aleron had was pretty striking, as was their sisters’ pink hair. The four of them would have been even more striking if they’d all shared more facial similarity, but the boys took after their mom while the girls took after their dad. The most calculating, aesthetically-minded part of Louis found that fact to be almost a pity—though they still looked just enough like each other for their relationship to be fairly obvious to the casual observer.

Unless the kid was an absolute bumpkin, the most likely explanation for his reaction went back to the obsessed fan thing. Daniel and Aleron had more of a niche appeal than most of them (too many people still held to the strange belief that red-haired men couldn’t be good-looking, despite all evidence to the contrary), but they definitely had their devoted fans. So did the girls, for that matter.

“Uh . . . who’s this kid?” asked Aleron, pointing.

Daniel added, “And why does he look so much like Dad?”

Louis looked at the kid again and snapped his fingers. “ _That’s_ who he reminded me of.”

The kid jumped in surprise. “What? No, I don’t!”

Nanette and Fifine stared at him. “Creepy,” Fifine breathed.

“Are you our brother?” asked Nanette.

“We don’t have another brother,” said Aleron.

Luc twisted in Louis’s grip to leer at the kid. He gasped dramatically. “Are you a bastard?”

“Hey!” Louis said, giving Luc a light jerk.

The insult finally broke through the kid’s stunned look, though. He glared at Luc and snapped, “I’m not a bastard!”

Aleron scowled at Nanette and Luc. “He’s not our brother,” he told Nanette. “Stop insinuating weird things about Dad. It would hurt his feelings if he heard you talking like that.”

Louis offered, “Maybe your dad has an identical cousin like mine does?”

“I’ve never heard of one,” said Aleron.

Daniel snapped a photo of the kid with his phone

“What are you doing?” Louis asked.

“Asking Dad about him.” They waited a few seconds, then Daniel read from his screen. “Dad says he doesn’t know who the kid is and he doesn’t see the resemblance.”

“There you go,” said Louis. “Just a coincidence. It happens.”

The kid let out a soft whoosh of breath and looked nervously at the four twins. “You’re right; I’m sure it’s nothing. Sorry. I—I didn’t mean to stare.”

“No problem,” said Aleron. “But seriously, who are you?”

Louis didn’t really want to get into the whole thing, so he told them, “Just someone I wanted Mom and Dad to talk to. Nothing big. Not really worth going into.”

Although Nanette and Fifine clearly wanted to pry, Daniel said, “Okay. We need to get these three back to the studio.”

Louis could feel Luc itching to run. “I’d better walk back with you.”

It wasn’t far down the hall to the studio. Louis followed a few paces behind the twins. He let go of Luc, allowing the boy to run ahead to tease the girls as long as he didn’t try to escape the group.

“Sorry about Chunibyo Boy,” Louis said to the bunny kid, who hurried to keep pace beside him. “He gets it from his grandma. Though he _usually_ doesn’t go around insulting people.”

With a small smile on his face, the kid murmured, “He’s not what I would have expected.”

Louis chuckled. “Yeah, but trust me, a bunch of people get paid very well to turn _that_ kid into ‘Luc Anciel, Tween Heartthrob’. Man, if the girls who put his pictures up all over their rooms could see what he’s really like . . . ” Louis looked down at the kid, only to find that he’d stopped walking a few paces back and was gaping again.

“Anciel?” the kid asked. “You mean he’s Marc and Juleka’s son?”

“Yeah . . . That’s pretty common knowledge.” Juleka was one of the top Gabriel models, and although Marc hadn’t modeled much in years, he was a well-known novelist. Being their kid was kind of the main thing Luc was known for, though he was certainly making a name for himself among a certain demographic.

“Marc and Juleka made _that_?!” the kid asked, gobsmacked. “How?”

Louis had no idea what he meant by that question, so he said, “The usual way?”

The kid blushed and ducked his head, catching up with Louis. “I meant personality-wise,” he muttered. He mumbled a little more to himself, but all Louis caught was, “Since when are they _that_ close?”

They reached the studio, and Louis had to grab Luc again to stop him from taking off across the room. They all slipped in quietly—even the bunny kid stood patiently behind them, right in front of the door—and observed the current photoshoot.

The stage was set up with a half red, half white theme, with chairs and props that could be moved in and out of the shot. Bright lights shone on the models currently leaning against one another. The brunette, Coccinelle, wore an airy white dress, while the blonde, Clarisse, was in a fitted red suit with a short jacket which left her midriff bare.

“Daniel,” Louis murmured, eyeing his friend sidelong, “you’re drooling.”

“I am not,” Daniel hissed. “I’m just . . . admiring Coccinelle’s dress.”

If it weren’t so dim in this part of the room, Louis was willing to bet he’d have seen his friend blush. “Funny, it looked like you were admiring Clarisse’s midsection.”

Daniel’s hand shot out and smacked Louis on the back of the head. Not hard, though. Daniel would never hit hard enough to actually hurt someone.

Louis laughed but decided to leave his friend alone for now, before Daniel remembered to tease him about his own failures in the romance department.

They only had to wait another minute before the photographer called for a break. The rest of the lights went up in the room, and Coccinelle came over to them.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Louis,” she said when she saw that he was holding Luc. “Did he give you trouble?”

“Nah. It wasn’t a problem. You guys done for now?”

A sharp voice broke into their conversation. “Ugh! Those lights were so hot, I’m positively dripping!” Clarisse strolled over to them. “I see the rugrats were being pains again. I don’t know why Mr. Agreste insists on keeping them around.”

Louis rolled his eyes at her. “Grandfather would hardly fire his lead child models over a little rowdiness.”

“And they’re not pains,” Aleron said defensively. “Well, okay, they are, but you don’t get to call them that.”

Clarisse propped her hands on her hips, and her eyes slid from Aleron to Daniel. “I can say whatever I want. Isn’t that right, Danny?”

Daniel couldn’t quite meet anyone’s eyes. “Could we all not argue?”

With a smirk of victory (even though Daniel hadn’t actually conceded anything to her), she shifted her attention to the kid standing behind the rest of them. “Who’s this?”

“No one you need to worry about,” Louis said.

With a dramatic flip of her hair, Clarisse turned away. “Fine. It’s not like I care anyway. Later, losers.”

As she walked away, Aleron shot his twin a glare. “I do not understand your taste in women.”

“At least she’s not underage,” Daniel shot back, and Aleron flushed.

“Boys, boys, come on now,” Louis said. He let go of Luc to put a hand on the shoulder of each twin.

As soon as he did, Luc darted away and was immediately chased by harried makeup people, begging him to stand still so they could get him ready. Nanette and Fifine broke away from their brothers to join the chase.

Louis ignored them and went on addressing the guys. “Both of you have weird taste. But to be fair, Emma will be legally an adult next year. Clarisse is probably always going to be a b—”

“Don’t make me hit you,” Daniel growled.

“I was going to say, ‘beautiful woman’,” Louis finished with a grin.

While Aleron stood there looking smug and Daniel grumped, Coccinelle watched her brother get chased around and finally caught by one of the makeup people. “Oh, no. I do wish he’d stop running around like that when we’re at work.” Her voice was faint and breathy, but as soon as she spoke, Daniel and Aleron went to her side to reassure her.

“It’s fine. He’s no trouble,” said Daniel. “See, he’s cooperating with them now. They just have to get it out of their systems sometimes.”

“I should have been watching him,” she said, rubbing her arm.

“You were working,” Aleron pointed out. “And you did a great job. Clarisse didn’t bother you, did she?”

“Oh, no,” Coccinelle assured him. “Clarisse may be prickly, but she’s easy to get along with once you understand her.”

The photographer’s assistant shouted at Daniel and Aleron to get changed.

_Seems like things are handled here_ , Louis thought, turning to the door.

The kid was standing there so quietly, Louis had almost forgot he was there. He was watching everything with wide eyes and an amused smile. When he noticed Louis looking at him, Louis raised an eyebrow, silently asking what was so amusing. The kid’s smile widened. “I’m just happy to be here. This is probably the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me.”

_Wow, he’s easily impressed_ , Louis thought. _But I guess all this backstage stuff is a lot more interesting for the fans than it is for us._ “Come on.” He opened the door and led the kid back to the elevators.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor note on the height thing: Even though I mostly tend to envision the story in the style of the show, I do mentally adapt it slightly to be more realistic, especially when it comes to the characters' physical size.


	96. Chapter 96

Louis popped into his mom’s office, but she wasn’t in, so he headed for his dad’s office on the top floor. There were only a handful of offices up here, his grandfather’s being the largest. The elevator door opened onto a broad, marble hallway. While smaller offices branched off of it down the way, the hallway’s main purpose was to provide an impressive lead-up to Gabriel Agreste’s office. And, going the other direction, a slightly less impressive lead-up to Adrien Agreste’s office. The design was all Gabriel’s idea, of course. Adrien had always been uncomfortable with the grandeur of the place, which was why he’d insisted on decorating the hallway with photos of family and friends in an attempt to make it feel more homey. Since so many of his family and friends were Gabriel models—or had at least done a photoshoot for Gabriel once or twice—it had been easy for them to find a compromise.

Any awe at the hallway and top floor in general had long since worn away for Louis, but the kid gawked at it all as they proceeded toward Adrien’s office. The family photos in particular caught his eye, but he didn’t comment on them.

When they reached the end of the hall, Louis found the pair of double doors to his dad’s office closed and guarded by Adrien’s personal assistant.

Closed doors meant that, most likely, Adrien was in a meeting, possibly with Marinette in there as well. (They also sometimes meant that Adrien and Marinette were in there together but alone, and Louis had learned the hard way not to barge into either of their offices under those circumstances.) The current situation with the kid wasn’t all that urgent, so Louis had no problem waiting a little while. At least until his dad’s assistant got off the video call he was on.

The tall young man with dark, neatly-cut hair and rectangular glasses glanced up at Louis only for a moment before continuing with his call, eyes returning to his tablet without any further acknowledgment of Louis’s presence, much less the kid with him. “No, two o’clock is fine. Adrien has a fitting scheduled at three, but as long as the meeting is over by two-fifty, there should be no problem.”

“Excellent,” said the voice on the other end of the call. Louis couldn’t see the tablet’s screen, but he knew Nathalie’s voice well enough to recognize it immediately. “Mr. Fielding and I will be flying in on the twenty-eighth to go over Mr. Agreste’s plans for the winter maternity line.”

“Do you need me to book hotel reservations?”

“No. I’ve taken care of it. We’ll be staying for three days before returning to London.”

“I understand. Let me know if there is anything I can assist with.”

“Sebastien . . . ” Nathalie’s tone shifted, becoming more vulnerable, less crisp. Not much, but enough that Louis noticed it. “If you’re free, would you like to have lunch while I’m in town?”

The pause before Sebastien’s next breath was a touch too long. He tapped on the tablet before answering. “Yes, I should be able to fit it in. Is eleven-thirty on the twenty-ninth acceptable?”

“It is.” Nathalie had returned in an instant to her usual crisp professionalism.

“Is that all, Ms. Sancoeur?” Sebastien asked.

Another too-long pause. “Yes. Thank you, Sebastien. Please give Adrien and Marinette my regards.”

“Of course.” Sebastien ended the call and adjusted his posture, straightening and holding the tablet at his side, to give Louis his attention. “Hello, Louis.”

Louis crossed his arms casually over his chest. “Well, at least no one can accuse you of being a mamma's boy, Sebastien.”

“Don’t be ludicrous,” Sebastien replied, pushing up his glasses. “Besides, as you well know, Ms. Sancoeur is not my mother. She relinquished that title when she gave me to my father when I was three years old.”

From the corner of his eye, Louis caught the kid’s look of surprise. “She did?” the kid said. “That’s awful.”

Sebastien tilted his head to the side, examining the kid. “No, it isn’t. In doing so, she provided both herself and me with better, more stable lives. I’m quite grateful to her. Now, would you kindly tell me who you are and why you’re here?”

“How rude of me,” Louis said with a poorly-veiled twinge of irony. “Kid, this is my uncle, Sebastien Agreste. Uncle Baz, this is some kid who won’t give me his name.”

Sebastien winced at the nickname and glared at Louis. “Will you never stop calling me that?”

Louis grinned. “What’s wrong, Uncle Baz? Ashamed to have me as a nephew?”

Sebastien gritted his teeth. “Why don’t you harass Nickel this way? He’s your uncle, too.”

“Only by marriage. Besides, I do call him Uncle Nick sometimes. Just not very often because it doesn’t annoy him as much.”

Sebastien wore the expression of someone resigned to a life of suffering. “Why must you torment me, Louis? I’m sure I never did anything to deserve it.”

“Maybe the problem is that your perspective’s off. Renée actually likes it when I call her Aunt Née. It makes her laugh. You should try to have a sense of humor about it.”

“No,” Sebastien said, his eyes—but no other part of his face—shifting slyly. “You’re nothing but a br _o_ ther.” When he said it, he lifted the ‘o’ sound so it sounded like ‘bother’ with an ‘r’ inserted.

Louis grinned. “At least I’m not a _niece_ ance, like Emma.”

The corners of Sebastien’s mouth curled in the tiniest possible smile. “Nonetheless, I must in _sister_ you stop.”

The kid interrupted them before they could really get going. “Um, I’m not sure what’s happening, but can we go in?”

Sebastien looked at the kid, then at Louis. “What do you mean he won’t tell you his name?”

Louis shrugged. “I need to talk to Mom and Dad about him. Are they in a meeting?”

“Yes, but it’s only with Clarisse’s parents.”

“So nothing important.” Louis moved toward the door. “Could you make sure he doesn’t run off while I talk to Mom and Dad?”

Sebastien eyed the kid. “Is he here against his will?”

“I don’t think so,” Louis said, and the kid shook his head. “But if he tries to run off, could you stop him?”

Sebastien was understandably confused by that request, but he nodded.

Louis opened the door to his dad’s office and went in. Adrien Agreste had the second-biggest office in the building, with huge windows looking out onto the Paris skyline. In addition to an oversize desk made of glass and chrome and the white leather office chair behind it, there was a comfortable seating area to the left, right beneath the twelve-foot-wide family portrait they’d taken a few years ago.

He strode toward the foursome chatting in the seating area. “Excuse me for interrupting, Mr. and Mrs. Bourgeois. I need Mom and Dad for something.”

Chloe stood and clasped her hands together in delight. “Of course, Louis darling! We were done anyway. And when are you going to start calling me Aunt Chloe?”

“As soon as it feels natural,” Louis answered lightly. Even though he did call most of his parents’ friends ‘Aunt’ or ‘Uncle’ (his actual aunt and uncles were only ever called that in jest, since they were even younger than Louis), Chloe had just never felt very aunt-like to him. Not that she didn’t try, in her own way.

To her credit, Chloe accepted his comfort level with the idea without getting offended (though she wouldn’t stop bringing it up, he knew). “We might as well stop in and see if Clarisse can take a break from work. Pierre, did you send her the link to pick out her graduation gift?”

Her husband stood. “Of course, my queen.”

“Good,” she said. “Adrien. Marinette. Don’t forget about the party.”

“I’ll ask Sebastien to make sure our schedules are clear,” Adrien said with a smile.

As Chloe and Pierre headed for the door, she allowed him to take her hand in his. That was how it usually looked whenever the poor guy tried to show her affection: she _allowed_ it. Not always, though. When she thought no one was looking, she could actually be pretty sweet.

Once they were gone and the office door had closed behind them, Adrien jumped up from the couch and grabbed Louis in a puppyish hug. “Louis! I missed you!”

Louis patted his dad’s back indulgently. “You were only gone on your work trip for a week.”

“I know! A whole week without my Little Bun!”

Louis cast a pleading look over his dad’s shoulder to his mom, but she was giggling and would be no help. “Dad, do you have to keep calling me that? I’m twenty-one.”

Adrien pulled back from the hug, moving his hands to Louis’s shoulders. “It’s a parent’s prerogative to give their kid a nickname and call them that for their whole lives, so I’m afraid there’s no getting out of it. You’ll always be my Little Bun, just like Emma will always be my Cupcake and Hugo will always be my Cinnamon Roll.”

Despite his genuine (but very mild) annoyance, Louis couldn’t stop his mouth from smiling. “You’re the weirdest dad in the world.”

“I take that as a compliment.”

Adrien stepped back, and Marinette came over to kiss Louis’s cheek. “Did you bring the cake?” she asked.

“Yeah. It’s out in the hall. That kinda leads into what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“There’s nothing wrong at the bakery, is there?” Marinette asked.

“No, nothing like that,” Louis assured her.

Adrien sat on the back of one of the low armchairs. “What is it? How can we help?”

“When I went to pick up the cake,” Louis explained, “I found someone in the house who shouldn’t have been there.”

Marinette’s hands flew to her mouth. “A burglar? You didn’t confront them, did you? Are my parents okay?”

“Mom, mom, it’s fine!” Louis said, waving his hands to try to calm her down. “I don’t think it’s a burglar. My best guess is that he’s some kind of fan, but I don’t know.”

Adrien frowned. “What exactly happened, Louis?”

“Well, he wouldn’t tell me why he was in there or even his name, but he looks pretty harmless. I didn’t want to let him get away without knowing why he was there, but it seemed like overkill to call the cops on him, so . . . I brought him here so you guys could decide. He’s out in the hall with Sebastien.”

Adrien’s eyebrows shot up. “You brought a home invader here?”

“What did my parents say about it?” Marinette asked.

“I didn’t tell Grandma and Grandpa,” Louis said. “I didn’t want to freak them out. But yeah, I brought him here. Like I said, I think he’s harmless. Just a kid, really.”

His explanation succeeded in calming his parents down, and they gave him patient looks. “What _do_ you know about him?” Marinette asked.

Louis shrugged. “He’s sixteen, I caught him coming out of Grandma and Grandpa’s bedroom, and when I found him, he was dressed in some kind of white bunny costume. When I asked him his name, all he’d give me was ‘White Rabbit’.”

His parents’ eyes widened with more shock even than that news deserved. Adrien fell backward onto the chair, instinctively rolling and popping to his feet with impressive agility. He shared a look with Marinette, and huge smiles bloomed on both their faces.

“It’s time,” Marinette said.

“I’d almost forgotten to expect him,” Adrien said.

They faced Louis and said in disturbing unison, “Bring him in!”

“Whoa, whoa.” Louis stumbled back a step from their intense interest. “Who is he? Do you know him?”

Another mysterious glance between his parents. A tiny shake of Marinette’s head.

Adrien was nearly bouncing with excitement. Marinette came over to Louis and put a hand on his shoulder, turning him toward the door. “It’s nothing. We just get excited easily. Why don’t you go tell our guest he can come in? Adrien and I would like to talk to him in private.”

Louis knew they were hiding something from him, but there was no point trying to pry it out of them. If they wanted to tell him later, they would. If they didn’t want to, they wouldn’t, no matter how much he asked. So Louis left his parents by the seating area and went back into the hall.

“They said you can come in,” he told the kid, taking the cake box from him.

“Great! Thanks!” The kid went in, and the door closed behind him.

Louis told Sebastien, “They want to talk to him alone.”

“Who is he?” Sebastien asked. “He wouldn’t answer any of my questions.”

“I honestly don’t know, but Mom and Dad seem to, for some reason. Maybe Dad’ll tell you later if you ask. Hey, do you know where this cake is supposed to go?”

Sebastien didn’t look especially pleased to be out of the loop either, but said, “I’ll take it,” and did so, heading down the hall.

For a few seconds, Louis hesitated outside the office door. He could faintly hear raised voices. Though he couldn’t make out what they were saying, they sounded happy.

_Whatever. I’d better get to the fitting._ One of the designers had wanted him to come in at his convenience to check some fits, but he didn’t want to put it off too long. As an Agreste, he needed to be as professional as he could.

He’d made it halfway down the hall to the elevator when someone darted out from an alcove and grabbed his arm. He jerked away instinctively with a cry of alarm, but the arms clutched around his didn’t loosen.

“Why so jumpy, pretty boy?” Brown eyes sparkling with mischief gazed up into his.

“Keva!” he squeaked, his face instantly flaming at her extremely unexpected closeness. “ _You’re_ not supposed to be here!”

She frowned and let go of him only to prop her hands on her hips and raise an eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Louis backpedaled—metaphorically and a little bit literally. “I mean, I wasn’t suspec—expecting you.” Dang it, she did this on purpose. She always loved watching him flounder.

“I was in the neighborhood.” She smiled and waved her phone at him. “Daniel texted me an interesting picture. Who’s the kid?” She peered around like Louis might be hiding him behind his back. “ _Where’s_ the kid?”

Straightening his shirt in an attempt to regain some of his cool, despite the heat in his face, Louis said, “In Dad’s office. I brought him to talk to my parents.”

Keva leaned in close, invading his personal space. “So, who is he?”

Louis gulped, grateful that she wasn’t as fond of low-cut tops as Clarisse was, or his eyes would be doing some very bad things right about now. Her button-up shirt and waistcoat, complete with tie, looked very nice on her but made it much easier to keep his attention where it belonged. “I don’t know. He wouldn’t give me his name.” As flustered as he was, Louis didn’t even try to stop himself from explaining the whole thing. “He broke into my grandparents’ place somehow, but he’s harmless, so I brought him here to let my parents decide what to do with him.”

Interest lit up Keva’s eyes like the spark of a firecracker. “How interesting! And why does he look so much like Uncle Nathaniel?”

“Coincidence,” Louis answered. “Daniel even asked his dad about it.”

Keva’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “I don’t believe in coincidence. So he’s in there with your parents now?”

“Yeah.”

She grabbed his wrist and dragged him down the hall toward Adrien’s office.

“What are you doing?” Louis hissed.

“Don’t you want to hear what they’re talking about?”

“I mean, yeah, I’m curious, but we can’t just go in.”

“We don’t have to.” They reached the doorway, and Keva knelt down.

Confused, Louis did the same.

Keva took some things out of her pocket: a very thin device and a pair of earbuds. “I swiped this from Mom’s office,” she whispered.

“You want to spy on them?!” It was hard for Louis to keep his voice low, but he managed it.

Not waiting for his opinion on her plan, Keva slid the device through the very thin crack under the door and adjusted it with some wires that had stayed on their side. She used her phone to link up to the device and in moments had a mouse-eye view of the office’s seating area, where the kid was talking to Louis’s parents. The view was mostly obscured by the furniture, but they could see Marinette, part of Adrien, and the back of the kid’s head.

“We shouldn’t snoop on them,” Louis said.

Keva held up one of the earbuds. The other was already in her ear. When she looked at him like that, the very picture of a temptress, he was helpless to resist.

“You should learn to use your powers for good,” Louis muttered, inserting the earbud.

She wrapped her arms around one of his, cozying up until his triceps was pressed against her breasts and his face was absolutely on fire (but he refused to give her the satisfaction of a reaction this time). “I always use my powers for good, sweet boy. Now shush.”


	97. Chapter 97

In relative time, it had almost certainly been less than an hour since Nathaniel had learned Ladybug’s identity and received a Miraculous, but it felt like years had passed. In a very real sense, they had.

After seeing his own sons—who, as infants, he’d held in his arms only that morning—as full-grown adults older and taller than himself, Nathaniel was pretty much numb to any further shocks. Swimming under the surface of his constant, low-level daze were other feelings fighting for attention he couldn’t afford to give them: pride, joy, and relief that his sons had grown into healthy, seemingly well-adjusted adults; eagerness and uncertainty after seeing the _other_ set of twins; and almost blinding fear—because he knew what the future held for all of them. Or would, if he couldn’t find some way to change it in addition to completing the mission he’d originally been sent on.

 _Marinette will have the answers_ , Nathaniel told himself as he entered the huge office. _Ladybug always has the answers._

The door automatically eased shut behind him. Nathaniel spotted the only two people in the room and headed toward them. He smiled in relief at seeing familiar faces (familiar faces which belonged to the people he expected them to, that was), even if they did appear slightly different thanks to a couple extra decades.

Adrien’s whole face lit up. “Nathaniel, you’re here!” He met Nathaniel part-way across the room with a tight hug that caught Nathaniel off-guard.

“Easy, Adrien,” Marinette said, approaching. “Don’t scare him.”

But the embrace wasn’t frightening. It was warm and friendly, and after Nathaniel got over his momentary surprise, he chuckled. “You got tall, Adrien,” he said into his friend’s chest.

Adrien released him, still beaming. “I forgot how short you used to be.”

‘ _Used to be.’_ _That sounds promising_ , Nathaniel thought.

Marinette nudged Adrien back to not crowd Nathaniel, then smiled and waved. “Hi. So, how are you?”

What a ridiculous conversation this was. Nathaniel had to laugh at it. “Doing okay. You?”

“Great,” Adrien said, looking him up and down like he was some kind of sideshow exhibit. “This is so weird! And so cool!”

“It definitely is,” Nathaniel agreed. “But, um . . . you guys did send me here on a mission. So maybe we should get to that?”

Marinette frowned. “You’re right; we shouldn’t tell you more about your future than you need to know.”

“I . . . probably already know more than I should,” Nathaniel admitted.

“We know you met Louis and Sebastien,” Marinette said, “but that shouldn’t be a problem as long as you keep that knowledge to yourself when you get back.”

Nathaniel scratched the back of his neck. “We . . . kind of took a detour downstairs on the way up. So I met some other people, too.”

Marinette’s eyes widened slightly with worry. “Like who?”

“Like . . . my kids? All four of them.”

Adrien laughed, and Marinette face-palmed. “Great,” she muttered. “Anyone else?”

“Luc, Coccinelle, and Clarisse,” Nathaniel said, somewhat amused by the way Marinette’s shoulders slumped a little more with each name.

She sighed. “Just don’t tell anyone when you get back, and try not to let any of that affect your choices, if that’s even possible.” She jerked straight. “Wait, did Chloe see you when she left? You were still in the hall, weren’t you?”

“I heard her voice and stayed near the wall,” Nathaniel assured her. “She was so busy talking, she didn’t see me. Who was that guy holding her hand?”

Marinette propped a hand on her hip and gave him a look. “You don’t need to know any _more_ about the future, at least not if it’s not relevant to your mission.”

They went to the seating area and got comfortable. Despite having a whole couch, Adrien and Marinette sat close together. Nathaniel was happy to see that they were still so obviously in love. He spotted the rings on their fingers and smirked. “So, how long did you guys end up waiting to get married?”

At the same moment that Marinette said, “No more unnecessary information!” Adrien grinned and said, “We were eighteen.”

“Adrien!” Marinette smacked him on the shoulder.

Adrien laughed. “Okay, okay. No more.”

“Is it okay if Fluff comes out?” Nathaniel asked. “She’s been stuck in my pocket for a while now.”

“Sure,” said Marinette. “Has she eaten?”

Fluff flew out of Nathaniel’s pocket and hovered in the air. “I’ve eaten many times.”

“Hi, Fluff! I think I have some fruit on that table over there.” Adrien’s expression grew wistful as Fluff flew off. “I haven’t seen a kwami in forever. It makes me miss Plagg.”

Marinette squeezed his hand. “I miss Tikki, too.”

“Those were your kwamis?” Nathaniel asked. “What happened to them? Louis told me Ladybug and Cat Noir haven’t been around since, well, basically since I left. What happened?”

Adrien and Marinette shared a look and settled deeper into the couch, Marinette curling into him as he put his arm around her. “I’m afraid I ended up sending you on a wild goose chase, Nathaniel.”

Nathaniel frowned, his fingers curling around the arms of his chair. “What do you mean?”

“All right. Here’s the story,” said Adrien. “Back in our time, you returned only a few minutes after you left. You said that you’d arrived twenty-one years in the future—now, in other words—and found out there was no Ladybug or Cat Noir. In the _past_ of _that_ future that the White Rabbit from _our_ past visited, we—that is, Ladybug and Cat Noir—didn’t find replacements and instead chose to directly challenge Hawk Moth. They—the other us—gave their Miraculouses to other people for safekeeping and showed up to the fight as Adrien and Marinette, since Hawk Moth already knew their—our—identities, and they didn’t want to give him any chance at getting the Miraculouses. They took the risk to fight Hawk Moth as themselves, without powers, rather than risk letting Hawk Moth get the Miraculouses if he defeated them. They had suspected that, despite all the evil he’d done, Hawk Moth had some kind of conscience. Sure enough, that Hawk Moth didn’t fight them. The Miraculouses were returned to the Guardian, who took them away from Paris, and Hawk Moth stopped akumatizing people. Are you following so far?”

Nathaniel’s brain had to take a minute to catch up with everything. “I think so? Who’s the Guardian?”

Marinette answered. “The person who keeps all the Miraculouses, or at least all the ones in the Ladybug and Black Cat set, and chooses who to give them to. Under normal circumstances, at least. He took them away, and since Hawk Moth’s whole goal was to obtain our Miraculouses, once we made it clear to him that they were out of his reach, he gave up.”

“He did?” Nathaniel asked. “It was that easy?”

“It wasn’t ideal,” Marinette acknowledged. “In that timeline, they never recovered the Butterfly or Peacock Miraculouses from him, but he apparently never used them again for evil, either. So it was kind of a draw.”

“Okay . . . ” said Nathaniel. “So that was a different timeline from this one?”

“We’re not sure,” said Adrien. “With the information you brought us, we decided to do pretty much the same thing. So, you know, cause and effect, paradoxes . . . Who knows if this is that same future or a slightly different one? But we think it’s pretty close.”

Nathaniel leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his thighs. “So that’s what happened in this time? You guys just sent your Miraculouses to the Guardian, and he took them away, and Hawk Moth gave up fighting?”

“Hawk Moth did use the Butterfly Miraculous from time to time,” Marinette said. “Every so often, someone would get akumatized, but it was always a pretty low-level villain that was created. Like Hawk Moth was dipping his toe in the water and seeing if anything would bite. Except the Miraculouses really were gone, so no heroes came to stop him. After a few years, he gave it up completely.”

Adrien spread his hands. “So, there it is. Your mission’s a lot simpler than we thought. Just go back and tell our past selves that Hawk Moth will stop akumatizing people if all the heroes disappear and if he’s convinced that the Miraculouses are gone from Paris.”

Nathaniel narrowed his eyes. Something wasn’t adding up. “You said that in your past, when I came back, I told you I had come to this time. Did I tell you I visited any other times?”

Marinette shook her head, then cocked it with a confused expression. “You said this was the only time you visited. You came here first and found the answer, so you didn’t think there was any point trying another time.”

With a deep sigh, Nathaniel ran his fingers across his scalp. This time stuff was so confusing. “That’s not what happened, though. This isn’t the first time I came to.”

Adrien sat forward. “What do you mean?”

“I mean I went farther forward, to two other years, before I came here. When I first entered the Burrow, I was still processing everything, so I spaced out until my timer was almost up and had to pick a different year just so I could recharge and look again.”

“How is that possible?” Marinette asked. “How can your actions be different than they were before if nothing else interfered with the timeline?”

Nathaniel shrugged. “You’re asking me? I’m not even the right wielder for this Miraculous.” He could see Marinette start to argue, so he held up his hand with a wan smile. “No, I’m really not. I’m doing my best, but I think there’s probably a different one that would be better for me.”

Adrien snorted. “Been there.”

Nathaniel wanted to ask what he meant by that, but now definitely wasn’t the time. “Maybe the Burrow is, like, outside of time or something? Like, maybe things can happen differently there more easily they can within a timeline? I don’t know, and I’m not sure it matters. The point is, I saw things in the future—in _your_ future—that were . . . not good.”

Marinette held up a hand. “Don’t tell us. We shouldn’t know too much.”

“You’re not listening, Marinette. By ‘not good’, I mean we _need_ to change them. Future Rose begged me to . . . after I watched her knife a guy in the throat.”

As Nathaniel expected, their eyes went very wide at that information. So, Rose hadn’t changed so much by this time that her actions were any more believable to them than they had been to him.

“She killed the guy with a single strike,” he said, just to help get the point across. “I don’t know what caused the future that I found her in, but I know it was the beginning of the end. Do you want to know what I found in the future even farther ahead than that?”

Marinette’s voice was rough, and her face was pale. “No.”

“The heroes need to stay around,” Nathaniel said. “Even if there’s no Hawk Moth. There are greater threats to Paris—to all of humanity—that will need to be faced. Compared to what I saw, Hawk Moth is nothing but an inconvenience. Yes, we need to defeat him, but we can’t throw away what might be humanity’s last means of defense in the future for a few more years of convenience now. We need a better plan, because doing things the way they were done last time isn’t going to be enough.”

With the way Adrien’s and Marinette’s faces had gone so serious, they suddenly looked exactly like the thirty-six-year-olds they were.

“What do you suggest?” Adrien asked.

Nathaniel sat back. “Me?”

Adrien gestured to him. “You’re the wielder of the Rabbit Miraculous. It’s your call.”

To Nathaniel’s shock, Marinette nodded in agreement. “Even if you don’t feel like you’re a good match, it’s yours for right now, which means the decision on how to use it is yours. Even if I wanted to tell you what to do, I’m not the Guardian. I’m not even Ladybug anymore. I have no authority to tell you anything. So, White Rabbit, how do you think we should fix things?”

Nathaniel was stunned. Not only was Ladybug trusting him— _him_ , who was brand-freaking-new to even being a superhero at all—with literally _saving the world_ , but so was Cat Noir, so were Adrien and Marinette, and so were two people with two decades more knowledge and life experience than Nathaniel had. He had _not_ realized what he’d been volunteering for. But even if he had . . . he still would have done it. For Alix. For Ladybug. And for himself. It was easy to tell himself he could be a superhero if given the chance, to draw stories about being a hero and play pretend the way children do. But the chance had actually come to him, and he’d taken it, and he would not fail now.

Nathaniel sat in thought for several minutes, drumming his fingers on the arm of the chair. With a patience that their teenage selves probably wouldn’t have had, Marinette and Adrien waited, watching silently, for him to speak.

Finally, Nathaniel spoke. “I need to bring back replacements.” He looked up from his thinking and into their eyes. “You told me to solve the problem of needing a new Ladybug in my time. If we can’t say for sure who else would be a good person back then to give the Miraculous to, then I can bring someone back from this time. Will you two come back with me and be Ladybug and Cat Noir again?”

Eager agreement exploded onto Adrien’s face, but before he could get the words out, Marinette answered.

“We shouldn’t do that.”

Adrien looked at her in shock. “Why not?”

“It’s too dangerous. Timeline-wise. We shouldn’t interact that much with our younger selves. They’d still want to be involved, and we wouldn’t be able to tell them why they couldn’t. And if they were still involved, it would be way too easy for them to figure out who we are. Then it’s too likely they’d find out things about their future that they shouldn’t know. Even if we tried to keep things from them, we might slip up. And anything they found out could affect their future and _our_ past. The timeline might change. By the time we came back, our world or our lives might be completely different. We just can’t risk it.”

Adrien’s expression fell, but he didn’t argue. He knew she was right.

But Nathaniel knew he was right, too. “If it can’t be you, then it should be someone else. Someone who won’t risk affecting the timeline as much. If the Ladybug of my time knew of someone she felt comfortable giving the Miraculouses to, she’d have done it. She came to me—well, to Alix—as a last resort. So when I go back, I have to go back with an answer. There must be someone you know in this time who you’d trust to take your places.”

And that was the moment when the office doors burst open and a woman who looked like a prettier, more feminine Nino charged in, dragging Louis behind her by the wrist, the both of them moving so fast that he nearly bowled her over when she abruptly stopped. With a wild-eyed grin, she shouted, “We’ll do it!”


	98. Chapter 98

_She was right. It’_ _s not_ _a coincidence._ That was how far behind the conversation Louis’s mind was. He was still trying to deal with the fact that the kid was actually the past version of the man he knew as Uncle Nathaniel, an actual _time-traveler_. He’d have to schedule in time next week to deal with the fact that his parents had been _superheroes_ , Ladybug and Cat Noir themselves. Then maybe, in a month or two, he’d be prepared to address the fact that if someone didn’t travel back in time to change the past, they were all facing some horrible future apocalyptic enough to turn sweet Aunt Rose into a ruthlessly efficient killer.

But, no. Keva just had to drag him through the door and smack dab into the middle of the absolutely insane conversation they’d been freaking out over for the past several minutes, without any care as to whether he was mentally prepared for it.

“We’ll do it!”

Yep, that checked out. Keva had been dragging him into things since they were little. Louis got his feet under him and made sure she wasn’t in danger of falling over anymore either. When he looked up, he found his parents and the kid— _Nathaniel_ —watching the two of them.

His mom smiled and shook her head. “Why am I not surprised?’

“We can do it, right?” Keva asked eagerly. “Louis and I would make _awesome_ superheroes!”

There was a strange look on Adrien’s face: part amusement, part pride, and what looked like a little bit of envy. “Louis? Do you want to?”

Straightening his back, Louis nodded. “Yeah,” he agreed, the same way he almost always agreed whenever Keva dragged him into something. Maybe it was the sheer force of her personality, but he always seemed to end up following her lead. Besides, it wasn’t like he was going to let her do this alone, and she was obviously set on doing it.

Nathaniel looked from Louis and Keva to Marinette and Nathaniel. “Can they do it?”

Marinette didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she met Louis’s eyes for a full five seconds, then did the same with Keva. Her mouth curled. “Yeah. They can.”

A breath whooshed out of Louis, and he stepped closer to the group, his wrist slipping out of Keva’s grasp. “You’re really Unc—uh, Nathaniel?” he asked the kid.

Nathaniel smiled awkwardly and shrugged. “Yeah. That’s why I couldn’t tell you my name.”

“This is insane,” Louis breathed.

“You’re telling me. Just a couple days ago, I held you when you were this big.” He vaguely mimed holding an infant. “You look so much like Adrien.”

Ah, that was why he’d called him ‘Adrien’ the first time he’d seen him. Louis inhaled sharply. “You said you didn’t recognize you! I mean, the text! When Daniel asked!”

His parents didn’t seem to know what to make of this statement, but Nathaniel laughed softly. “I assume my older self remembered coming here and covered for me.”

Keva’s eyes widened. “There are two of you here right now. In this time. Isn’t that supposed to, like, make the time-space continuum explode or something?”

“No, no, it’s fine,” said Marinette. “There’s been more than one of me in the same time before.”

“Yeah, Timebreaker!” Adrien said. “I remember that. Oh man, that was sweet. Two Ladybugs.” He hummed appreciatively.

Marinette jabbed him with her elbow. “And Alix was there helping us when Bunnyx—her future self using the Rabbit Miraculous—came back to stop Timetagger. So it’s fine.”

Nathaniel came around the armchair to get a closer look at Keva. “You’re Keva, right?”

“Yeah! This is so cool!” She held up her phone and snapped a photo of him.

“No pictures!” Marinette said.

“What’s the big deal?” Keva asked. “Daniel already took his picture. If he sent it to me, he might have sent it to other people.”

“No _more_ pictures,” Marinette clarified. “And don’t you dare save that video. I know what that thing is.” She pointed to the snooping device in Keva’s hand.

“Fine,” Keva sighed. Louis looked over her shoulder to make sure she was actually deleting the picture and video.

Adrien eyed him. “You’re taking this superhero thing pretty calmly. Where’s the shock and awe that your parents were awesome heroes back in the day?”

“Well . . . ” Louis said calmly enough that he thought he might actually be in a little shock, “I knew superheroes existed. Time-travel and the end of the world are new, so I’m freaking out more about those. But yeah, it is kinda hard to wrap my head around you guys being Ladybug and Cat Noir.”

“Does Mom know?” Keva asked.

Marinette and Adrien shared a glance, then Marinette gave a little shrug. “Yeah. Your parents were Rena Rouge and Carapace.”

“They were?” Keva gasped.

“They are?” Nathaniel said.

Adrien touched his chin in thought. “Oh, right, you don’t know that. Yep, they are! Were. Are for you but were for us.”

Marinette strode to Louis and put a hand on her shoulder. “Being a superhero isn’t all cool powers and flashy costumes. It’s dangerous, too. You guys don’t have to do this.”

Keva clenched a fist. “Yeah, we do! You need someone to save the world, and apparently we’re both the kids of superheroes. It’s in our blood. No one’s a better choice.”

Louis smiled and took the hand that Marinette had on his shoulder, clasping it gently. “We can do this, Mom.”

“I know you _can_ , but—”

“We _want_ to do this,” he clarified.

Adrien came over and put his arm around Marinette’s waist. “They’re eight years older than we were when we started,” he told her. “They’ll be fine.”

She smiled, sharing his calm reassurance. “They will. Plus, they’re adults, so they won’t even have the five-minute timer like we did. They’ll be able to use their powers multiple times without recharging if they need to.” Her expression grew serious again. “But you two _will_ need to be careful. About your safety, yes, but even more so about affecting the timeline. You can’t let our younger selves know who you are. You can’t let anyone else know who you are. Nathaniel knows, and Viperion might find out because he has a different sort of time-travel Miraculous, but you need to do everything you can to keep your identities secret. Promise me that.”

“We promise,” Louis and Keva said in unison.

“Your mission is to help the heroes from the past defeat Hawk Moth,” she continued. “I don’t know what that will entail, since we were never able to do it ourselves. We don’t know who Hawk Moth is or what he wanted our Miraculouses for, other than to make a wish.”

“A wish?” Keva asked.

Marinette explained. “If someone obtains both the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses, they can make a single wish to alter reality. But the wish would come with a terrible price. What that price is would depend on what the wish was. But it would be bad, so it can’t be allowed to happen, no matter what.”

Adrien had grown serious now as well. Louis nodded. “We won’t let it. We’ll keep the Miraculouses safe.”

Marinette reached out and squeezed his shoulder. “Good. We have faith in you. But there’s one more thing. Along with keeping your identities secret, you need to do whatever you can to make sure you affect the timeline as little as possible. Defeating Hawk Moth shouldn’t have much affect as opposed to him deciding to stop on his own, but you need to be careful anyway. We want to be here for you when you come back to this time. If you change too much in the past, it’s possible our—and your—lives could be very different, or we might not be here at all. You can never know in advance how one thing might lead to another. So be careful, son.”

Louis surged forward and wrapped his mom up in a hug. Instantly, he felt his dad’s arms circle them both. “Thanks for believing in us,” Louis said. “We’ll get it done.”

When Louis let go, Marinette and Adrien hugged Keva as well, offering praise and encouragement.

They stepped back, and Keva took Louis’s hand. “So, how do we get there?”

Having hung back while the others talked, Nathaniel came closer. “Fluff, you ready?” he asked the room.

A white blur flew threw the air toward him. When it stopped, a white, rabbitish creature hung in the air near Nathaniel’s head.

“Ah!” Louis jerked back in surprise. So did Keva.

Adrien held out his hands. “It’s okay! She’s just a kwami.”

“You didn’t see her on your spy camera because they can’t be recorded,” Marinette explained.

“This is Fluff,” said Nathaniel.

When Fluff looked at Louis, she didn’t just cock her head—she cocked her whole body, rotating in the air. “Hello.”

“It talks!” Keva shouted.

“Yes,” Marinette said. “They’re intelligent beings. They’re what give superheroes their power, along with the Miraculouses. The details about kwamis are something that shouldn’t be public knowledge, though. That’s why you haven’t heard of them before.”

“H-hi, Fluff,” Louis tried.

“H-hi,” the strange creature replied. “Are we going?”

“Yeah,” Nathaniel answered. “There’s no more reason to wait, is there?”

Marinette held out her hand. “Give me your phones and any other technology you have. Your clothes look normal enough for that time, but you can’t have anything that would seem out of place there.”

They did as they were told, though it felt unnatural to give up his phone. It had everything on there, even his electronic driver’s license and his e-wallet. From the look on her face, Keva had an even harder time with it.

Adrien laughed at their discomfort. “My younger self can get you new phones when you arrive.”

“Yeah, but my apps,” Keva whined softly, eliciting another laugh from Adrien.

Once they were sufficiently de-teched, Adrien slapped Louis on the shoulder. “Make us proud, kids. What am I saying? We’re already proud. Make yourselves proud.”

“Will do, Dad.”

“We can’t travel from here,” Nathaniel said. “The Burrow only leads to different times, not different places, and we probably don’t want to just drop in on whoever had this office in my time.”

Adrien grimaced slightly. “No, you don’t.”

“Where do we need to go, then?” asked Keva.

“I originally left from Alix’s room in the hospital, so that’s where Marinette and Adrien are waiting for me. We should get as close to there as we can.”

“Hospital?” Louis asked, concerned even though he knew that Alix was perfectly fine in their time, so whatever the problem was hadn’t been permanent.

Nathaniel glanced to Marinette, who said, “It’s okay, Louis. Alix’s first delivery was rough and left her in the hospital for several weeks, but she made a full recovery eventually. She’s the one who was supposed to get the Rabbit Miraculous.”

The relief on Nathaniel’s face was palpable, but he didn’t ask for details. Instead, he explained, “I was there, so I got it instead. And I’ll be happy to give it back to her when I can.”

Keva grabbed Louis’s hand, and he instinctively squeezed it back, even though he knew the contact didn’t mean for her what it did for him. He let himself enjoy it, anyway. “We’d better go,” she said. “It shouldn’t take long to get to the hospital.”

They made it out of the building and onto their mo-bis without encountering anyone else, and then it was an easy ride to the hospital. The hospital hadn’t changed at all, so Nathaniel was able to direct them to the building they needed. They parked their mo-bis and went around the side on a garden path.

“It’s that room,” Nathaniel said, pointing at a first-floor window. They could see a patient inside, which meant they couldn’t get into the room and time-travel from inside it.

“Can we do it here, then?” Keva asked.

Nathaniel glanced both ways down the path. “I think we should be as close as we can get and just hope no one sees us coming or going.” He pulled a silver pocket watch from his jacket and held it up. “Fluff, clockwise.” In a flash of light, he transformed into White Rabbit.

Keva _ooh_ ed. Louis thought, _I guess I don’t need to tell Grandpa to check the fuse after all._

White Rabbit pointed his umbrella at nothing and said, “Burrow.” A white, glowing circle appeared in thin air. He stepped one foot through and turned back, holding out his hands to them. “Ready, guys?”

“Ready,” they said, each taking one of his hands.

Together, they entered a white room filled with blurry paintings.

“This is amazing!” Keva cried, clutching at Louis’s arm in excitement. He was too distracted to be surprised by the sudden touch.

White Rabbit walked along the walls, inspecting the frames under the paintings.

After several seconds, Louis asked, “Is there a problem?”

White Rabbit looked up at them and blushed slightly under his mask. “So, uh . . . I don’t actually know how to get to a specific, exact time.”

“What?!” Louis shouted.

“I’m new at this! No one explained it to me!”

“It can’t be that hard,” Keva said, examining the paintings for herself. “What’s this?”

Louis and White Rabbit approached one canvas that wasn’t like the others. Instead of a blurry image inside the frame, it was blank, and there was no plaque under it, either.

White Rabbit considered it a moment, then murmured, “I wonder.” He lifted his umbrella, touching the tip of it to the canvas. When he moved it, a line appeared, as if the end of the umbrella had a piece of charcoal pencil on it. White Rabbit smiled to himself. “Right. I think I’ve got this.”

With swift, sure strokes, he sketched a simple scene. Louis knew Nathaniel was a talented artist, but it was amazing to see how even at the age he was now, he could create recognizable forms with so few lines and make it seem simple. In less than a minute, the canvas bore a sketch of a hospital room with younger versions of Louis’s parents sitting on a windowsill near a hospital bed where a younger Alix was sleeping.

Lowering the umbrella, White Rabbit touched his other hand to the image, and it sharpened, filling with color and more detail, transforming from a sketch into a window. “Here we go.”


	99. Chapter 99

“I’m hungry,” Plagg complained.

Adrien shushed him. “It’s been five minutes. You can wait.”

“And keep your voice down,” Tikki added. “You don’t want Alix to wake up and see us.”

“I don’t know what the big deal is,” Plagg said, but he lowered his voice a little so Tikki would stop glaring at him. “She’s seen a kwami before when she met her future self. And you guys already trust her enough to want to give her a Miraculous, so what’s the harm in her finding out your identities?”

Adrien didn’t have an answer for him. Even Marinette seemed uncertain. “We need to keep things as under wraps as we still can,” she said. “That means not spreading secrets around unless we really have to or it’s to an actual, active team member.”

Adrien accepted this with a shrug. Plagg was about to ask for food again when he saw a white circle appear in the air on the other side of the window. “It’s about time,” he said.

Marinette and Adrien turned to see what he was looking at, just in time to see White Rabbit stick his head out of the Burrow.

Adrien opened the window. “Na—White Rabbit! You’re back!”

“Did you find out what we asked you to?” Marinette asked, then noticed that White Rabbit was still half inside the Burrow. “Come in before someone sees you.”

“I can’t do that yet,” White Rabbit told them. “And, well, it’s a little complicated, but I need you to give me your Miraculouses.”

“What?” Adrien asked, his hand instinctively curling protectively around his ring.

Plagg flew up into White Rabbit’s face. “What’s the deal, bunny boy? Why do you want them?”

White Rabbit’s Miraculous beeped and his eyes shifted from Adrien to Marinette, pointedly ignoring Plagg. “I can explain in a minute, but we need to hurry. The short version is that when I went to the future, I found out there _wasn’t_ a Ladybug after you. Or a Cat Noir. And no one knows where the Miraculouses are. So I brought some volunteers from the future to be your replacements. The future you—both of you,” he added, eyes flicking to Adrien, “vouched for them. But you also said it’s critical that their identities stay totally secret. So I need you to give me your Miraculouses so I can give them to them in the Burrow before they come out.”

Plagg crossed his arms indignantly. “A likely story. You’re not gonna hand me over that easily, are you, kid?”

Adrien’s expression was pained, and that caused alarm to jolt through Plagg’s body. “You knew we had to find replacements, Plagg,” he said softly.

Marinette’s expression was unrelenting. “If White Rabbit says that’s how it is, I trust him.” She held Tikki close, cuddling her on her cheek. “This isn’t goodbye, Tikki. We’re not leaving the team yet.”

Tikki hugged her back and said, “You’re the best owner I’ve ever had, Marinette.”

Plagg wanted to tell Adrien the same thing, but that would have been admitting it was the end. Instead, he told him, “This isn’t over, Adrien.”

Adrien held his palm open for Plagg to sit on and stroked Plagg’s head with a finger. “It’d better not be.” Without warning, he squished Plagg against his chest. “I’m gonna miss you in the meanwhile, though.”

Plagg hugged him back for a few seconds before pushing away. “Yeah, yeah, stop the waterworks. Let’s get on with it. The sooner we do this, the sooner my new owner can feed me.”

Marinette took off her earrings, and Tikki disappeared into them. The next moment, Adrien grasped his ring and slid it off.

Plagg’s sense of time when he was inside the ring was a bit fuzzy, but he was sure it wasn’t long before he popped out again and looked into the eyes of the person now wearing his ring. They were the exact same eyes he’d just been looking into.

He almost blurted, “Adrien?” before catching himself. No, something was different about this guy. He had dark hair, for one, and he was taller, and his face looked older. Plus, his scent was similar but different. “Who are you?” he asked.

The weird not-Adrien grinned at him. “Wow! You’re my kwami? What’s your name?”

Some manners on this guy, ignoring Plagg’s question like that. With a sniff, Plagg magnanimously answered, “I’m Plagg. Who’re you?”

His new owner held out his hand. “I’m Louis Agreste.”

Plagg’s jaw dropped.

Tikki flew out in front of him. “Isn’t it great?”

The surprise passed, and Plagg let out a reluctant laugh. “So, you’re the kitten all grown up?” He ignored Louis’s offered hand, and the young man wilted slightly but didn’t lower it.

“And look!” Tikki flew over to a young woman wearing the ladybug earrings. “My new owner is Keva, Alya and Nino’s daughter!”

The woman beamed at them. “It’s great to meet you guys!”

Plagg appraised Keva and Louis. He spotted White Rabbit standing nearby and said, “I guess if you _had_ to find replacements, you did a pretty good job.”

Louis brightened back up. “So you like me?”

“You’re all right.”

White Rabbit’s Miraculous beeped. “Hurry and transform so we can leave the Burrow.”

Louis was still watching Plagg hopefully. Plagg sighed and shook his fingertip. “Just say, ‘Claws out.’ ”

“Claws out!”

#

Louis barely had time to look down at his gloved hands tipped with sharp claws when a flash of pink light drew his attention and he forgot how to breathe.

She was stunning. Absolutely stunning. Ever since they’d both hit puberty, Louis had liked Keva’s body: curvier hips than most of the other girls he knew, with a trim waist and breasts that hit the sweet spot between too big and too small. He never said any of this to her, of course. The thought of actually verbalizing any of his physical attraction filled him embarrassment and dread. If she knew he thought that way about her, would she act differently around him? Would she distance herself? Probably. Better to keep it to himself.

But he’d never seen her in anything like this. Her costume was mostly the skin-tight sort of thing that superheroes normally wore (he should have expected it, really), with a sort of faux-corset/waistcoat embellishment that flattered her hips and waist in a way that made Louis’s mouth go dry. That part was black while the rest of the costume, including the mask, was red with black spots. Her hair was pulled up in a high ponytail, and there was a magical yo-yo looped around her waist.

As he stared at her, she eyed him right back, an amusing expression of surprise blanketing her face for a few seconds before shifting into a grin. “Hey there, pussycat.”

She was teasing him again. Maybe it was the magical superpowers that made his body feel like it could do anything, even standing still, but his heart didn’t try to beat itself out of his chest, and no heat rushed to his face under her teasing, flirty gaze. And the voice in his head that always reminded him to shut up and keep his thoughts to himself was strangely absent.

His mouth ran away from his brain, and before he knew what was happening, his lips had formed a smirk, and the words, “If I said you have a nice body, would you hold it against me?” slipped from between them.

Keva’s eyes popped wide, and Louis could see the tiniest trace of a blush under her mask before she broke into laughter.

_What on earth did I just say?_ he thought as he caught up with himself. Now the heat came to his face, and he turned away from her before she could see how embarrassed he was. But she’d laughed, not pulled away or gotten weirded out. And that blush had been extremely satisfying. It was the first time he’d ever gotten one out of her. After all the teasing he’d put up with from her, she owed him quite a few more.

A beep drew Louis’s attention, and he looked up to see White Rabbit watching them in amusement, his hand already part-way through the frame that led into the past. “Come on, you two.”

#

Adrien squirmed in his seat on the windowsill, watching the open door to the Burrow nervously. “They’re coming back, right?”

“They’re coming back,” Marinette reassured him. “It’s only been a minute or two.”

Something occurred to him. “If they can’t be around us when they’re not transformed, that means we can’t see Plagg and Tikki again.”

“Not until Hawk Moth’s defeated and our replacements go back to their own time,” she said, downcast.

“But we will see Plagg and Tikki again, right?”

“Of course we will. If nothing else, we’ll need to take the Miraculouses back to Master Fu. We can say goodbye to them then.”

Adrien really didn’t like the sound of that, but he didn’t know what other options they could have.

Movement caught his eye, and he shuffled to the side as three people climbed out of the portal and through the window.

Adrien took in the sight of their replacements standing at the end of Alix’s bed. The new Ladybug had a costume not too different from the real—uh, former—Ladybug, except for the bodice, but she was taller and curvier, her hair was in a ponytail, and her eyes, hair, and skin were all different shades of brown. Adrien’s replacement was also an adult. The cat eyes with green sclera were the same that he’d had, and the same that Marinette had had when she’d been Lady Noire, so carrying over that aspect of Plagg’s appearance was probably a quirk of the Black Cat ring. The new guy’s hair was black with a bluish sheen, and the cat ears on top of his head had green on the inside. Other than the ears and the claws on the ends of his fingers, there were no other extra bits or padding, not even a belt. His stick was still attached to the small of his back, though. Form-fitting and sleek, the black of the costume was broken up only by the green palms of his hands and soles of his shoes. The truth was, the guy didn’t _need_ extra padding, patterns, or distractions; his lean muscles were so well-defined that anything more from the costume would have been too much, aesthetically-speaking.

“Well,” Adrien said, feeling just a little inadequate, “they obviously aren’t us.”

Beside him, Marinette nodded. “At least when they show up, Hawk Moth will know we don’t have the Miraculouses anymore.”

While Nathaniel detransformed and went over to check on Alix, the two new heroes gawked at Adrien and Marinette long enough for it to become uncomfortable.

The woman was the first to snap out of it and elbowed her companion. “So, you’re the legendary Ladybug and Cat Noir?”

“Legendary?” Marinette squeaked.

The woman shrugged. “Okay, that’s a slight overstatement. Still, it’s cool to meet you.”

Adrien squinted at the guy who was still staring at them with his mouth slightly agape. “But if we vouched for you in the future, then that means we know you, right?”

“Don’t answer that.” Marinette shot Adrien a reproving look before turning back to the new heroes. “Don’t tell us anything about yourselves. Not what year you’re from, and not how we might know or have met you.”

“Don’t worry, au—Marinette. We got this.” The woman shot a pointed look to the guy beside her. “Don’t we?”

Finally, he blinked. “Right! We do! Totally! We got this. We have all of it. Wrapped up like a neat, tight little package that we keep in our pocket. It is ours. _So_ possessed by us.”

A laugh burst out of Adrien, and he tried to hide it behind his hand. Suddenly, this taller, older, more muscular replacement didn’t seem nearly so intimidating. Even the faint resentment he’d felt about this guy having taken Plagg melted away. “Good. As long as you possess it.”

Marinette and the woman hero were laughing, too. The guy looked at the woman beside him and pouted a little as his cheeks turned faintly pink.

Honestly, it was good to know that saying stupid things and embarrassing themselves was something adults did too.

“Thank you so much for coming to help us,” Marinette told them. “What should we call you?”

The woman’s eyes lit up. “Oh! We get superhero names, right! Call me Ladybird.”

The man looked into the mirror on the wall; it was probably the first time seeing his own costume. “Call me . . . Black Tom.”

From over by the head of the bed, Nathaniel asked, “Isn’t Black Tom a Marvel supervillain?”

“No! Well, yes, but ignore that. Male cats are called toms, right? Black cat. Black tom. It makes sense.”

“It’s fine,” Marinette said reassuringly.

Adrien leaned closer to her and murmured, “Your dad’s gonna like that.” She nodded slightly, and when he looked back at Black Tom, the new hero was smiling to himself. Maybe he was pleased to have their approval.

Marinette stood. “Now that you’re here, we need to meet up with the rest of the team so they can meet you. Nathaniel, now that you know more about what you’ve signed on for, I hope you’re willing to stay part of the team. We could really use you.”

Adrien thought it was interesting that Marinette still thought of the two of them as part of the team, even without their Miraculouses. He wasn’t sure what she had in mind, but anything that would keep him involved was okay by him.

Nathaniel pursed his lips in thought before nodding. “I do. Though I don’t think this Miraculous is the best fit for me. But until Alix is ready to use it, I’ll take her place. If that’s okay.”

“Thank you, Nathaniel,” Marinette said, going over to squeeze his shoulder. “You did a great job so far. I’m sure you’ll fit in perfectly with the rest of the team.”

He smiled at her praise. “Thanks, Marinette. That means a lot.”

Even though she wasn’t Ladybug anymore, Marinette acted like she was still in charge, and everyone else was happy to let her. “Okay, Ladybird, send a text with your communicator to the rest of the team. They need to meet us somewhere.” She moved next to Ladybird to quietly dictate the text, then asked, “Nathaniel, do you have any food for Fluff?”

Nathaniel picked his bag off the floor by his chair and dug around until he came up with a candy bar. “Sorry, Fluff. It’s not from a garden, but do you mind?”

Fluff ate part of the candy bar without complaining, and Nathaniel transformed.

“They’re on their way,” Ladybird said, reading her communicator screen.

“Great,” Marinette said. “Until you guys get used to traveling with your weapons, just run along the rooftops. Ladybird, you can carry me, and Black Tom can carry—”

A weak but surprised voice interrupted her. “What the . . . ” Alix was semi-awake and looking at the group as if she thought she were still dreaming. Her eyes settled on White Rabbit, and her face scrunched up in confusion. “You’re not me.”

He went over to her and took her hand. “It’s all right, Alix. They wanted you, but until you feel better, I’m filling in. Is that okay?”

She blinked at him. “Nath?”

“Holy crap!” Marinette blurted.

Adrien nodded his agreement. “You recognized him immediately!”

“ ’Course I did. Who else has this hair?” Alix reached up to ruffle it. “Why are you guys here?” Her gaze slid to the two new heroes. “And who are they?”

“Long story,” White Rabbit said. “Maybe we can tell you later, but we have to go now. Will you be all right?”

“Sure. Don’t worry about me. Go be a hero.”

“Okay. Call the nurse if you need anything.” White Rabbit’s head dipped a little—his floppy ears accentuating the movement—as if he wanted to lean over and kiss Alix on the cheek, but he stopped himself and backed away.

They all left through the window, and Ladybird scooped Marinette up in her arms with a laugh and leapt away. Black Tom seemed a little hesitant about doing the same with Adrien.

“Don’t think so much,” Adrien told him lightly. “Carrying people is part of the whole superhero gig. We’re all used to it.” Even though he’d never had a problem ordering adults around when he was Cat Noir, when he wasn’t in costume, it felt weird to be reassuring an adult, even if he _was_ the veteran when it came to superheroing.

It worked, though. Black Tom relaxed with a huff of breath that was more a release of tension than actual amusement. “If you say so, d—Adrien.” Then he hoisted Adrien over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and used his stick to propel himself to the top of the building and ran off after Ladybird.

“Oof. Your technique could use some work, though,” Adrien complained, trying to brace himself so his face didn’t smack against Black Tom’s back. The only response he got was a laugh from Black Tom and a grin from White Rabbit as he followed behind.


	100. Chapter 100

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There may be a longer than usual break before the next chapter is posted. Since I'm on the ending stretch, I may want to get the rest written before posting it. I'm not positive, but I wanted to warn you in case it happens.

With her attention focused on telling Ladybird where to go, Marinette didn’t have time to dwell on how strange it was to see someone else wearing her costume—or on how it made her chest tight with loss. It was especially strange because she didn’t know who the person under the mask was. The only other person she’d ever seen using her Miraculous had been Cat Noir, and even though she hadn’t known he was Adrien at that time, she’d still trusted him as her partner and one of her best friends. But with this woman, all Marinette had to go on was Nathaniel’s word that her future self had vouched for her.

It was enough. Enough to get on with the next order of business. Enough to focus on what she could do to help these new heroes fight Hawk Moth—a bad guy they’d never encountered in a time that wasn’t their own.

“Right there.” She pointed to a barge on the Seine, alone on this stretch of the river.

Ladybird leapt across rooftops, moving like an absolute natural in a way that Ladybug hadn’t been. “Oh, the Li—I mean, a boat, cool.”

Marinette ignored the obvious recognition from the woman. It was apparently important that Marinette not know the new heroes’ identities, so she tried her best to put any clues that slipped from them out of her mind.

White Rabbit and Black Tom were right on Ladybird’s heels. “We’re meeting there?” asked White Rabbit as the trio made the final leap from the buildings to the bank of the Seine.

They made another hop to the deck of the barge, and the new heroes set Marinette and Adrien on their feet.

Marinette explained. “We couldn’t meet up at my house or Adrien’s since Hawk Moth knows who we are, but we need somewhere relatively private. Juleka’s at school and her mom’s at work.”

“So we’re just crashing her house?” White Rabbit asked. “Wait, _Juleka’s_ at school? What about—”

A figure dropped out of the sky to land on the deck in front of them. “Hey, guys,” Viperion said with a smile, which slipped into an expression of curiosity when he spotted White Rabbit. “Who’s he?”

“You’ll see in a minute,” Marinette said. “Where are the others?”

“Right behind me.” Viperion came closer and offered White Rabbit his hand. “Viperion. Nice to meet you,” he said with a faint trace of irony.

White Rabbit shook his hand. “White Rabbit.”

A smile curled Viperion’s mouth, his eyes not leaving White Rabbit’s face. “I’m guessing . . . Nathaniel.”

“What?” Marinette snapped in surprise. “Come on! What is even the point of masks?”

The boys ignored her. “Is my hair really that distinctive?” White Rabbit asked.

Viperion shrugged and let go of his hand. “Sort of, especially when I know the pool of options is limited to people Marinette knows.”

“Ah, right,” said White Rabbit. “So, considering that and where we are, I have to assume you’re Luka.”

From the corner of her eye, Marinette saw Black Tom and Ladybird stiffen with surprise. She forced herself to ignore that, too.

Viperion gave White Rabbit a wink of acknowledgment.

Marinette groaned into her hands. “I’m so predictable!”

An arm snaked around her waist, and she looked up into Adrien’s soft eyes. “You never fail to surprise _me_ , Milady.”

Four more people dropped onto the deck and immediately shot curious looks at the three new heroes.

“Not now,” Marinette said, cutting off any questions. “Can we go inside?”

“Of course.” Viperion led them downstairs into the main living space of the barge. It was spacious enough for all of them to sit comfortably, most of them taking spots on or around the couch while Ladybird and Black Tom perched on the stools, leaning back on their elbows against the bar.

Rena Rouge plopped down on the couch next to Marinette. “I thought you were just getting replacements for you and Adrien. Who’s the bunny?”

White Rabbit grinned at her. “Can’t you guess, Alya?”

Rena gaped at him. “She told you?”

He shrugged. “I’d already mostly guessed.” (Marinette was sure she hadn’t told him, which meant her older self must have.) In a move far more cheeky than Marinette would have expected from him, White Rabbit went around the room, pointing at the other heroes. “Nino, Max, Kim. Am I right?”

King Monkey leapt at him and punched his shoulder. It was a friendly, playful punch, but it still knocked White Rabbit back a step. “Dude! How do you know who we are?”

White Rabbit looked up from behind his hair and gave King Monkey a lopsided grin. “You guys _all_ duck out of class every time someone’s akumatized. I doubt I’m the only one who’s started to notice.”

“Class, huh?” Rena went over and leaned into White Rabbit’s face. “Then that means—”

Marinette sighed dramatically. “We don’t have time for this, guys! We need to debrief and all get on the same page. Everyone just detransform so we can do that.” She pointed at the only two adult heroes. “Except you guys, obviously.”

Probably sensing impatience from the four not yet aware of his identity, White Rabbit detransformed first. Then, with laughs and a welcoming pile-on, the others did, too.

As Nathaniel gave them a quick explanation of how he was only here because Alix wasn’t available, Marinette asked Luka, “Do you have any drinks and snacks?”

“Sure.” He moved to the kitchen area on the other side of the bar.

Adrien jumped up from the couch. “I’ll help.”

A minute or two later, they were all settled in, the kwamis flying around or sitting on their people, everyone snacking happily. Except Ladybird and Black Tom, who sat on the stools watching them like a couple of zoo patrons gawking at the animals.

Kim’s voice cut through the general chatter. “So, who are the new guys?”

Black Tom jerked as everyone’s attention turned to focus on him and Ladybird. “Uh, hi? We’re, um . . . ”

“I’m Ladybird,” said Ladybird. “And this is Black Tom.”

“If you’re the new Ladybug, Ladybird,” said Kim, “then does that make you the team leader?”

Ladybird shot a surprised look to Marinette. “No! I—I don’t want to be—um, I’m just here for support, ya know? Me and Black Tom, we’re just here to help, not take over.”

Marinette didn’t know what to say. Now that she wasn’t Ladybug, she didn’t think she had any right to be their team leader, so if they wanted someone else to lead, she could hardly argue about it.

But Alya said, “I don’t know about rest of you, and I know I only just got back into things, but I’m not looking for a new team leader.”

Nino backed her up. “Marinette isn’t a good team lead because of her Miraculous. It’s because she’s Marinette. She might not have her Miraculous right now, but that doesn’t make her any less Ladybug to me. I vote she stays lead.”

“Me, too!” Adrien agreed, but his excitement instantly wilted. “If I still get a vote, that is, since I don’t have my Miraculous either.”

Alya scanned the group, meeting everyone’s eyes. “Does anyone else want to be team leader?”

No one said anything.

Alya nodded. “Then all in favor of Marinette and Adrien staying on the team and Marinette staying team leader, raise your hand.”

Within a couple seconds, everyone’s hands were up, including Ladybird and Black Tom.

Marinette flushed with pride and humility that her friends had so much faith in her. “Thanks, everyone. I totally don’t deserve this kind of loyalty, but it means a lot.”

“So, are you going to use different Miraculouses or what?” Nino asked her.

Marinette chewed her lip. “I don’t think it’s safe for us to do that. If two new heroes that look too much like us show up, Hawk Moth will probably figure out that we just have different Miraculouses, and then he’ll try to take them. I’m still thinking about how we can help during fights. I’ll let you guys know once I’m sure.”

Max raised his hand. “Question: If it’s your intention that there are no secret identities amongst the team, why have Ladybird and Black Tom not detransformed?”

“Yeah,” said Kim, “and who are they? Why are they adults?”

“That’s a little complicated.” Marinette tried to think through what was safe to tell everyone and decided that there was probably no harm in telling them most of it, in the interest of team transparency. She gave a quick recap of how she didn’t know who to use for their replacements (leaving out any mention of the Guardian, since that probably still needed to be a secret for now) and had the idea to shortcut the decision by finding out who was Ladybug in the future. “The Rabbit Miraculous lets the user travel through time, a lot like how the Horse Miraculous lets the user travel through space. It hadn’t been used in this time since I’d been Ladybug, but twice, we met a Rabbit Miraculous user from the future who’d traveled back to this time to address a supervillain problem. That person was Alix. Our Alix even met her, so she knew she’d get that Miraculous eventually. So it seemed like the obvious choice to have Alix be the to go to the future to find out who our replacements were.”

“Except Alix still isn’t recovered,” Nathaniel said. “So I volunteered instead.”

“No way!” Kim’s eyes were huge. “You went to the future?! Alix is a time-traveler?!”

“I . . . did go to the future,” Nathaniel said, casting a questioning glance at Marinette.

She nodded to him. “Tell us whatever you think we need to know.”

Rubbing his hands together in thought, Nathaniel was silent for several seconds as everyone else waited. “I visited a few different times. None of them had a Ladybug or any other Miraculous-using superhero. I found out that there hadn’t been any since basically this time, meaning that Marinette and Adrien were never replaced, and the rest of you gave up your Miraculouses, too.”

Alya frowned. “But what about Hawk Moth?”

“I guess he just gave up when the Miraculouses he wanted were out of his reach, though his Miraculous was never recovered,” Nathaniel said. “It worked out fine for a while. But the more distant futures I saw were . . . bad. The world needed heroes, and they weren’t around, and things got pretty terrible. So we can’t do things the way they were done before. Even if it means confronting Hawk Moth more directly, we need to keep the Miraculouses active. We need to make sure that they’ll be around later on, when they’re needed to fight threats that don’t come from other Miraculous users.”

Adrien leaned forward in his seat, his hand finding Marinette’s without him even having to look. “Wait a minute. You’re talking about _not_ giving them back to—” He cut off and shot a raised eyebrow to Marinette, deferring to her decision not to tell the others about the Guardian.

But Nathaniel seemed to know about him, because he nodded. “I am.” (How many of their _present_ secrets had her future self told him?)

Adrien’s face lit up. “Then maybe we can keep our Miraculouses after we defeat Hawk Moth!”

It was hard for Marinette to fight the hope that welled inside her at that thought. But she needed to put the brakes on things before they got too off-track. “We’ll address that _after_ we defeat him. For now, we need to focus on the current threat. Nathaniel, please continue.”

He didn’t look very comfortable with being the center of everyone’s attention, but he kept going. “When I heard there was no Ladybug, I found a future version of Marinette and Adrien—and I’m not going to say when I found them—and I asked them if they’d come be Ladybug and Cat Noir again. But the future Marinette said it would be too dangerous for them to interact closely with their past selves, so they sent two other people instead.” He looked toward Ladybird and Black Tom. “But she also said that it’s very important that no one in this time figure out their identities. That’s why they have to keep their masks on when they’re around anyone.”

“Why?” Alya asked. “Are you saying we’d recognize them?”

Marinette clapped a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “You can’t ask them things like that. Alya, I know it’s your nature to seek the truth and find out secrets, but you have to let this go and not even think about it. They’ve said it’s critical for us not to know.”

“But why not?” Alya’s tone wasn’t exactly challenging, but she wasn’t going to take this easily. “Do they have something to hide?”

“If future Adrien and I vouched for them, then we can trust them,” Marinette said, trying to keep her tone from being combative, but sometimes Alya’s pushy inquiries could be irritating and counter-productive. “Think about this: They’re coming from their time to do us a favor. Anything that changes from how their past was because of their involvement in our time won’t affect us, but it could affect them. If their presence changes history too much, their _present_ could change. Their whole lives could change. What if they go back to their own time to discover that friends or family members are missing, or they no longer have a job they love, or something else like that? Sure, we may be trusting them by letting them be part of the team without knowing their identities, but they’re trusting us with their very reality.”

Her words sunk in, but Alya still didn’t look completely convinced.

“Alya, was it?” Ladybird said. “I get your curiosity. I really do. I’m the same way. But Marinette’s right. Her older self made us promise to try to change as little as we possibly could and to keep our identities secret. If you trust Marinette, you should trust that decision, too. But I promise, neither of us is hiding anything that could possibly hurt any of you. We are one hundred percent on your side, and we’ll do everything we possibly can to help you defeat Hawk Moth. Isn’t that right, partner?”

Black Tom nodded fervently. “Absolutely. You can count on us!”

Nino leaned back and put his arm around Alya. “That’s good enough for me.”

“Me, too!” said Kim.

Max nodded.

Luka didn’t voice an opinion, but he watched them with a thoughtful, unconcerned expression.

Alya’s mouth twisted. She didn’t quite want to let this go, though she obviously knew she should.

“How about this?” Ladybird offered. “When we get back to our own time, assuming we don’t screw everything up and change our whole future-present, I’ll see if I can find you, if you’re still around, and tell you who I am then.”

“Me, too,” Black Tom said.

Ladybird held out her hands like she was making a physical offering. “So you won’t have to be curious forever, at least. How does that sound?”

The interest and reluctance on Alya’s face broke into a smile and small laugh. “Yeah, okay. I guess waiting for the truth is better than not ever getting it. And I really don’t want to mess up your guys’ lives. I’ll keep my questions—and my suspicions, if I have any—to myself.”

“That’s good enough,” said Marinette. “Thanks, Alya.”

Luka said, “It was smart of your future selves to send adults. That way at least two of us won’t have to worry about timing out and can use their powers as many times as they need to.”

“That’s true!” Marinette hadn’t really thought about that part. “That should definitely help in our fights. I’m guessing Tikki and Plagg didn’t have time to explain your powers?”

The new heroes shook their heads.

“As long as Hawk Moth doesn’t attack again today,” Adrien said, “they should have time for all of that when they go home and detransform. Except . . . they don’t have homes here because this isn’t their time.”

“Not necessarily,” said Max. “If their time is only a year or five years in the future, they might have homes in this time.”

Marinette grimaced. Keeping all information about the new heroes secret was more difficult than it seemed on first glance. “Whether they do or not, we can’t know about it, so we have to assume they don’t. Even if they did, their present selves would probably be home, so they couldn’t stay there anyway.”

Nino asked, “So . . . where are they gonna stay?”

Marinette hummed in thought. “They can’t stay at my house or at the mansion, since Hawk Moth knows about Adrien and me now, so those places aren’t safe, and most of you live with your families, so they can’t stay there either. Maybe a hotel?”

“Eeh,” Black Tom said, “we don’t have any money. We left everything but the clothes on our backs behind.”

Adrien said, “I could pay for a hotel . . . except I’d have to use a card, so Father or Nathalie would notice, and there’d be a record of it at the hotel . . . ”

“I know!” Kim leapt to his feet. “They can stay at my place!”

Patiently, because she knew Kim wasn’t that bright, Marinette said, “But you live with your family, Kim, like the rest of us.”

To her surprise, he had an answer to this. “I meant my new place.”

“Your new place?” asked Alya.

Kim picked up a water bottle and absently juggled it. “Yeah, the apartment Ondine and I got.”

“Since when do you have an apartment?” asked Nathaniel.

“Since last weekend,” Kim answered. “We haven’t moved in yet, since Ondine’s dad felt so bad about planning to send Romy to boarding school and getting Ondine akumatized, he offered to pay for furniture and everything. I think it’s all mostly delivered now, though.”

Alya held up a hand. “Hang on. Back up. How can you afford an apartment?”

“Oh!” Kim snatched the bottle out of the air and pointed it at Adrien. “Someone from Adrien’s dad’s company called me last week and offered me a part-time job in the mail room. They said they’d heard how stupid fast I am and that I’m just what they need for running mail around the building.”

“And that pays well enough for you to rent an apartment?” Marinette asked, sliding a small grin toward Adrien.

“Yeah!” Kim said, obviously totally unaware of how unusual this was. “Even offered me a signing bonus and everything!”

“Congratulations, Kim,” Adrien said, draping an arm across the couch behind Marinette. She leaned into him. “I bet you’ll be awesome at that.”

“Thanks, I will! And the timing works out great, ’cause now Ladybird and Black Tom can stay there until we take down Hawk Moth.”

“But what about you and Ondine?” Luka asked.

“Since we haven’t moved in yet, we can keep doing what we’ve been doing for a while longer.”

“That’s extremely generous,” said Ladybird, “but shouldn’t you ask your wife’s opinion before offering up what’s supposed to be her home?”

Alya was not the only one who shot Ladybird a sharp glance, but she was the only one who tried to say anything about it. “How do you know she’s—”

Marinette elbowed her in the side and loudly cleared her throat.

“Right,” Alya muttered, unhappily keeping the rest of her question to herself.

Ladybird looked a little sheepish, but she didn’t try to cover or backtrack, which probably only would have made things worse.

The entire exchange had gone over Kim’s head. He just said, “That’s a good point,” and took out his phone. They all waited while he texted. After about ten seconds, he said, “She’s good with it.”

“Really?” asked Marinette. “What did you tell her?”

“That some friends need a place to stay for a while,” Kim answered.

“That’s it? And she said yes that quickly?” Marinette was beginning to regret that they’d never yet made a point of trying to get to know Ondine better. Considering how controlling her dad was, surely Ondine was eager to get out and into her own place, not to mention actually being allowed to be a family with Kim and Romy. And she wasn’t as dense as Kim was; Marinette was sure Ondine had a better idea of how significant the offer was. Yet she still consented immediately.

“Then I guess that’s settled,” said Adrien.

Marinette agreed. “When we’re done here, Kim, you take Ladybird and Black Tom to the apartment and get them situated.”

“We’ll probably need phones,” said Black Tom, “so we can stay in contact.”

“I can—” Adrien started to say, then stopped. “Actually, I would normally ask Nathalie to get a phone. I don’t know how to set that up myself.”

“I can do it,” offered Max. “But I’ll need money.”

Adrien took out his wallet and passed Max several large bills. “Will this be enough?”

Max counted the cash. “Indeed. I’ll get the phones today and program all our numbers in, coded slightly to disguise our identities, then text each of you so you have the numbers as well before giving them to Ladybird and Black Tom.”

Adrien counted the remaining cash in his wallet. “You guys said you didn’t have anything?” he asked the older heroes. They nodded, and he went over and handed each of them half of what was left in his wallet. “It’s not all that much, so try to make it stretch.”

As the heroes took the money, Black Tom said, “Thanks, da—” and Ladybird said, “Thanks, unc—” before both of them shifted to making creaky, drawn-out noises instead of words.

 _Nothing weird about that_ , Marinette told herself firmly. It was a strange feeling, forcing her brain not to work. She looked away from the two heroes, putting her face-to-face with Alya, who was staring at the two heroes with wide eyes and a slightly gaping mouth, which closed and slowly formed a grin.

Marinette leaned over so her mouth was right next to Alya’s ear and hissed, “Whatever you’re thinking, keep it to yourself.”

Alya pulled back to give her an incredulous look. “But don’t you—”

“No.” Marinette kept her voice at a whisper, so only Alya could hear. “We _can’t_ know who they are. We _can’t_ let too much change for them. So I’m trying _not_ to pay attention.” And as long as she kept doing her best to let those odd clues go in one ear and out the other, she might succeed in keeping their secret from herself.

Alya’s expression sobered. “You’re right. Okay. I’ll keep my thoughts to myself, like I said.”

Marinette sighed and leaned back. This was not going very well, but she was doing the best she could. Hopefully, Alya would keep her word.

Luckily, as soon as Max had mentioned his plan for the phones, Nino and Kim had turned to him and started chatting about what kind of phones he should get, so none of them had heard the heroes’ weird reaction to Adrien. Nathaniel was staring straight at Alya with a worried expression, and Luka was watching the heroes thoughtfully.

Adrien was still talking to the heroes. “So, uh . . . I can’t take too much money out without my father finding out and noticing, so I can’t give you much, but I’ll try to get you some now and then. Let me know if there’s anything else you need that isn’t in Kim’s apartment.”

“Uh, right, okay,” said Black Tom as he grasped the money nervously. He didn’t have pockets in his suit like Cat Noir did, by the look of it.

“We’ll need some clothes,” said Ladybird.

“Right. Marinette?” Adrien turned back to look at her.

She jumped up, weirdly eager to get away from Alya, as if Alya could force her suspicions onto Marinette by proximity telepathy. “What’s up?”

Adrien gestured to the heroes. “They’ll need some extra clothes. Can you figure something out for them?”

“Sure! That I can do. No need to tell me your sizes; I can guess pretty well by sight.” It was probably over-cautious to not want even that information, but women’s sizes, at least, varied enough by brand that it wasn’t terribly useful information anyway. Unless they’d finally gotten around to standardizing that stuff by their time, in which case it still wouldn’t be applicable to today’s sizes.

Luka came over to stand with them. “So, what’s the next step in the plan, Marinette?”

Giving him a grateful smile for getting the discussion back on the main goal, Marinette said, “We need to make sure Hawk Moth knows that Adrien and I don’t have the Miraculouses. Otherwise, he might still come after us.” Marinette looked behind her to see that Alya was watching them from the couch. “Think you can take the lead on that part, Alya?”

“Oh, yeah.” Alya smiled and held up her phone. “I’ve got it covered. “By tonight, Bird Lady and Tomcat will be the only news anyone’s talking about.”


	101. Chapter 101

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unexpected delay warning still in effect, but I'd like to post some chapter as I can, if I feel pretty confident I won't need to go back and change things. Always a possibility, though.

“I can’t believe we forgot to call and tell them we’re okay!” Marinette stood outside of the bakery, clutching at her hair.

“I’m sure they’ll forgive us,” Adrien said calmly.

She turned to him, her eyes wide with panic. “What do we tell them?”

“As much of the truth as we can,” he advised.

Okay. Yeah. That made sense. She took a deep breath.

“Come on,” Adrien said, taking her hand and heading toward the door. “They probably didn’t even have time to get _that_ worried about us.”

The ‘Closed’ sign on the bakery door sent Marinette into another bout of guilt. After defeating Dark Owl and meeting up with the team, she and Adrien had only spared a minute to drop into her room from the terrace to change into normal clothes and grab their phones before going to meet Master Fu. Marinette’s body had been desperate to pump, already leaking through her nightgown, but she hadn’t even spared time for that, since they didn’t know if Hawk Moth was watching her house now, so she’d just shoved some padding into her nursing bra and hoped for the best. There certainly hadn’t been time to go downstairs and come up with a story for her parents. But she _should_ have thought to call them while she was waiting for Nathaniel to return from his trip to the future.

The bakery door was locked, so they went around to the main door of the house, which was unlocked. When they reached the living room, they found Marinette’s parents on the couch: Sabine on the phone and Louis in one of Tom’s massive arms. Hearing the door, Tom and Sabine looked over and cried out in surprise. Sabine dropped the phone and ran (waddled) to throw her arms around Marinette.

“You’re home! What happened? How are you?” She released Marinette to give Adrien a similar welcome, then stepped back to look at them both. By that time, Tom had joined them, holding back from hugging them only because of the baby, but his face was just as relieved as Sabine’s.

“We’re fine!” Marinette assured them. “We got kidnapped by a villain, but Ladybug and Cat Noir showed up and defeated him.

Adrien took Louis from Tom and cuddled his son to his cheek. Tom took the opportunity to squeeze Marinette against his chest.

“Ow, Dad, not so tight!” Marinette protested.

“Sorry!” Tom released her, but it was too late. Marinette could feel the moisture around her nipples increase, and her already aching breasts ached even more. She really did feel like she was about to pop now.

“I need to go,” she yelped, then ran upstairs. No one followed her or questioned her, so the wetness on her shirt had probably become visible. _Adrien will explain things to them_ , she thought as she got the pumping stuff set up and going.

It was so strange to be alone in her room and not have Tikki to talk to. Maybe hormones were still giving her mood swings, or maybe everything was just hitting her now, but she broke down in tears. Thanks to the need to pump, she’d probably have a little while until Adrien or her mom tried to come up, so she could afford a bit of a cry. She hated crying, but she couldn’t help it. Even though she firmly believed she’d see Tikki at least one more time, she still felt the loss of her little friend so strongly it physically hurt.

After a few minutes, she allowed herself to feel hope that Adrien was right and they really could get her and Plagg back once Hawk Moth was defeated. That hope was probably foolhardy, but she decided to hold onto it. It would give her strength to see this through and do whatever she could to help the team. No, to _lead_ the team. They still wanted her to lead them, which was pretty amazing. She wasn’t worthy of that at all, but it was so humbling that they trusted her that much, she didn’t want to disappoint them.

#

_Being a superhero is exhausting_ , Black Tom thought. Not so much physically—the suit and powers gave him seemingly limitless stamina along with the strength, speed, and everything else—but mentally. Meeting his own parents as teenagers, not to mention a bunch of his parents’ friends, had been draining in a way he hadn’t anticipated. He’d had to try to keep his mouth shut as much as possible so he didn’t blurt something out, and even then, he still slipped up more than once. _I’m trying, Mom_ , he thought, hoping he hadn’t already managed to inadvertently change something for the worse.

The apartment building that King Monkey brought them to was in a decent but not upscale neighborhood and a bit on the affordable side. They entered through the roof, and King Monkey detransformed in the stairwell before leading Black Tom and Ladybird to the third floor. He had to go ahead of them to make sure they didn’t run into anybody, but they made it to the apartment door without incident.

When they entered, Kim announced, “Here it is! What do you think?”

Black Tom looked around. “It’s . . . nice.” It was a pretty modest two-bedroom apartment, but to kids who’d been living with their parents until now, it probably felt spacious.

“Let me give you a tour!” Kim said.

The kitchen area was joined to the living room with only a counter separating them. There were two bedrooms and a bathroom directly off the main room. And that was the tour.

Kim still showed them all the basic stuff as if they were special features. “This is the drawer where the silverware is, and plates are up here. There’s a fridge and dishwasher. And there’s a dresser in the bedroom. There’s only one bed, but the couch is pretty big.”

Black Tom felt faint heat in his cheeks. “That’s fine; I’ll take the couch.”

Ladybird put a hand on Kim’s shoulder. “This will be great. Thanks so much for letting us stay here, Kim. And please tell Ondine thanks too.”

“No problem! Anything for teammates!”

Black Tom smiled at him. Some people never changed, and sometimes that was a good thing.

When Kim left, Black Tom collapsed onto the couch. “Finally.”

“This is unbelievable!” Ladybird squealed, literally bouncing with excitement.

Black Tom was too mentally tired to avoid watching her. _Huh, magical supersuits are more supportive than you’d think._ He blinked and looked down at his hands. “So, um . . . claws in?”

The suit disappeared in a flash of light, and Plagg appeared. “Do you have any cheese or what?”

Plagg was apparently not one for small talk. Or basic greetings. “Let me check.” Louis got up and went over to check the fridge. “Nope. We don’t have anything.”

“You have money, don’t you?” Plagg pointed out. “Buy me some cheese!”

Louis sighed. “I don’t think we’re supposed to be wandering around the city.”

Keva had detransformed as soon as Louis had, but it hadn’t tempered her excitement at all. “Maybe _you_ shouldn’t. That pretty face of yours looks just like your dad’s, so even if you’re not famous now, he is, and a guy who looks that much like a famous model isn’t likely to go unnoticed. I, however, should be able to get around just fine.”

Louis crossed his arms, answering her smug expression with a blank one. “Unless you get unlucky and run into your mom or dad. One of the others might be able to figure you out if they saw you, too.”

“He’s right, Keva,” said Tikki. “It’s too dangerous. You two should stay here unless you’re needed as superheroes.”

Keva growled in frustration and stomped back to the living room. “I can’t believe we’re in the freaking _past_ , and I can’t go out and see anything!”

“It’s only twenty-one years,” Louis pointed out, following her. “Other than seeing people we know looking a lot younger, it’s not all that interesting.”

Plagg flew up in front of Louis’s face and glared at him. “Excuse me! If we don’t have any food and you’re not going to get any, how am I gonna eat?”

Tikki bumped him, giving him a light smack with her little flipper-paw thing. “Plagg, don’t be a glutton! You didn’t even have to use your special power.”

“Speaking of which, how does that work?” Louis asked.

He and Keva spent the next few minutes learning about superhero stuff from their kwamis. When they were done, Plagg plopped down on a couch cushion to sulk about being hungry, Keva and Tikki chatted, and Louis turned on the TV because there wasn’t anything else to do at the moment.

#

“Tell me again why we’re here,” Marinette said to Alya as they walked down the hall to Kim’s apartment. “You know it would have been safer for Nathaniel to handle these sorts of things so the rest of us don’t find out their identities.”

“Psh,” Alya said. She probably would have waved dismissively if her hands hadn’t been full. “As long as they don’t talk about themselves, what could we find out?”

“And why the suggestion to bring Louis and Keva along?” Not that Marinette minded. She’d missed her baby after being away from him all morning, dealing with Miraculous-related emergencies.

“It’s good for babies to get fresh air.”

They stopped in front of the door and set down the bags they’d brought. Marinette’s hands automatically went to the baby sling on her chest, supporting Louis even though the sling was doing a fine job of it.

Alya knocked, there were footsteps on the other side of the door, and then a male voice said, “Hello?”

“Are ya decent?” asked Alya.

“Oh! Uh, hang on,” said the guy who probably wasn’t Black Tom at the moment.

They waited a few seconds. Marinette expected the door to open for them, so she was surprised when, instead, a red kwami phased through the door.

“Tikki!” It was a good thing Louis was already strapped to her, because she might otherwise have dropped him in her rush to hug Tikki.

With a loud giggle, Tikki hugged Marinette’s cheek. “It’s good to see you, Marinette!”

Tears clouded Marinette’s vision, and she blinked them away, smiling. “I didn’t expect to see you so soon.”

“Me, neither, but Ladybird told me to come say hi.”

Marinette’s affection for her replacement instantly grew several points. She smiled at Alya, finding a strangely smug smile on her friend’s face. “I’m so glad,” Marinette told Tikki. “Are you getting along well with her?”

“Oh, yes,” said Tikki. “She’ll be a good Ladybug. But I do hope I can come back to you once this is over.”

“Me, too, Tikki.”

“I’d better get—” Tikki stopped when she noticed the babies. “Oh. You brought them.”

Marinette shrugged. “Alya insisted.”

Tikki gave Alya a look. “Oh? Well . . . I’m sure your new teammates will be happy to meet them. Speaking of which, I’d better get inside so they can open the door.” She phased back into the apartment.

“What was that?” Marinette asked.

Alya’s expression was too pointedly innocent. “What?”

“That look betwee—No, you know what? I don’t want to know.”

The door opened, revealing Black Tom. “Hi, guyssssss . . . ” His voice trailed off when he saw the babies. His green, cat eyes darted from the baby to Marinette and back.

Marinette became acutely aware of something that she and the people around her had finally gotten used to, but which probably looked extremely strange to someone not from this exact point in time. (Or even for people who were from this time but maybe didn’t know anyone personally affected or were from out of town.) She and Alya were both fifteen-year-old moms. Under normal circumstances, a lot of people would infer some not-very-positive things about girls in that situation.

“Uh, hi!” Marinette said, putting her arms under Louis and propping him a little higher up. “This is Louis. My son. Did, uh, Plagg and Tikki tell you about the, um, unusual circumstances a bunch of us are in?”

Black Tom swallowed. “Circumstances?”

“From, uh . . . a villain called Fairy Grandmother?”

The visible part of Black Tom’s cheeks (which wasn’t much; his and Ladybird’s masks covered their entire noses as well as their cheekbones) turned pink. “Oh, that! Yeah, we know about that. It was kind of a big historical event.” He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

His discomfort increased Marinette’s discomfort, and she felt her own face heating. “So, yeah! This is my son. And Adrien’s. His name’s Louis.”

“You said that,” Black Tom pointed out.

Alya smiled, not looking nearly so uncomfortable. In fact, she strangely seemed to be enjoying Black Tom’s reaction. “This is Keva, my daughter with Nino. Isn’t she adorable?”

Black Tom looked at the other baby, who was curled up next to Alya’s chest, and smiled. “Yeah.” He gave a start. “Uh, come in! Please!”


	102. Chapter 102

_I’m in the freaking Twilight Zone_ , Black Tom thought as he grabbed the bags and led his mom and pseudo-aunt into the apartment.

Ladybird was sitting on the counter, feet swinging lightly. He shot her a desperate look, which she ignored. “What brings you two here? I thought—” Her next words got caught in her throat.

With his back to the girls, Black Tom set the bags that had groceries in them on the kitchen counter and raised his eyebrows at Ladybird to say, _See?!_

Trixx popped out and sat in contented silence on her master’s shoulder as Alya came further in and glanced around the apartment. “We couldn’t really go back to school, since we’d all called in sick, so Marinette and I thought we’d bring over the things you needed.”

“I’m sure it’s not everything,” Marinette said. With one hand supporting baby Louis, she squatted down to look through the bags that Black Tom had set on the floor. “But we don’t know how long you’ll have to stay here. Be sure to let us know if you need anything else. And _don’t_ go outside without your costumes on. You need to interact with this time as little as possible.”

“We already figured that out,” Black Tom said. His heart was thundering, but he managed to maintain the appearance of calm.

Marinette pulled a couple phones out of the bag and handed them to him and Ladybird. “Max set them all up for you.”

It felt good to have a phone again, though Black Tom knew this one wouldn’t be as useful as the one he’d left behind. He set it down and started putting groceries away so he had something to focus on other than the fact that his infant self was in the same room.

Not to mention the disturbing sight of his teen mom with a baby. She really was just a kid. Even though he knew it was completely irrational, seeing her with baby Louis strapped to her small frame made him feel vaguely guilty.

Ladybird busied herself with the other bags while their mothers went to sit on the couch. “Nice,” she said, filling the silence. “Clothes, sheets, blankets, toiletries. I’ll, uh . . . go put these away.”

_Cheater_ , Black Tom thought as his partner abandoned him.

_Partner_. He really liked the sound of that.

“So, uh, you guys are in school?” He was desperately trying to think of something someone who didn’t know them might say to make conversation.

“High school,” Alya said.

“Cool. That’s . . . neat . . . ” He was running out of groceries to put away. He’d have to look at them soon. Probably even go over and sit down with them. “Not to be rude, but, uh, why are you guys still here? Aren’t we _not_ supposed to socialize so you don’t learn anything about us?”

“We won’t ask anything about you,” said Alya. “But I wanted to prep you both a little. I’ll get some shots of you guys moving around the city, but I’m also gonna need an interview for the Ladyblog. Just a quick one. We’ll make it look like I’ve been following you around and finally got your attention. I’ll ask a couple basic questions, then you’ll say you need to leave and run off. And Marinette came to help prep you, as team leader and the former Ladybug.”

“Yeah, okay. That makes sense.” Black Tom had run out of groceries to put away. There was a chair catercorner to the couch, so he sat there and called out, “Ladybird! You done? They want to talk to us about hero stuff!” Though the apartment was so small and had no hallways, so she’d almost certainly heard everything her mom had said for herself.

But his call drew her out, and she pretended she hadn’t been avoiding them. “Oh, sure!” There was only one seat left: on the couch beside Alya, so she sat and tried not to look at her own infant self in Alya’s arms.

She didn’t do a very good job.

“This is Keva,” Alya said, since Ladybird kept looking at the baby. “My daughter. Isn’t she cute?”

Ladybird smiled self-consciously. “Yeah, she is.”

“I’m so incredibly, unbelievably proud of her,” Alya said, and Ladybird blushed. “Would you like to hold her?”

“Oh! Uh, oh—okay,” said Ladybird, because it was pretty much the only thing one could say when someone asked that.

Alya passed baby Keva to Ladybird, and Ladybird snuggled her younger self close, a huge smile breaking out on her face.

Something hit Black Tom hard in the chest—emotionally, that was. It wasn’t that he’d never seen her with a baby before, but maybe it was the fact that this one looked so much like her. Even though it was surreal that the baby _was_ her, they looked a lot like mother and daughter.

_I love her so much_ , he thought, fighting to hide the sudden desperation he had for her to love him back and make a life with him and a family with him. And he knew she didn’t see him that way, but right now he thought that maybe it would be worth risking their friendship to see if he could convince her to.

Whatever expression had found its way onto his face made Marinette ask him, “Would you like to hold Louis?”

His head snapped toward her. Maybe the whole situation was completely ludicrous, but the insanity of it was extremely compelling. How many times did a person get an opportunity like this? “Can I?”

Alya got up and offered him her seat so Marinette could more easily pass him the baby. He carefully held himself in his hands, holding him up to look into his own green eyes. He couldn’t help smiling either. _Okay, I get it, Dad. He really is a cute Little Bun._ He nuzzled his own tiny nose, and his baby self made an odd, happy sound.

When Black Tom looked up, Alya was taking pictures. Of course. Alya was always taking pictures. Hopefully she wouldn’t look at them again once these babies started getting old enough to look like their adult selves . . . at least not until after he and Keva got back to their own time.

“You’re not thinking of putting those on the blog, are you?” Marinette asked her warily.

“Nope,” said Alya. “We’d get all kinds of jealous hate mail from people wanting _their_ babies cuddled by superheroes. I can’t risk that.”

Black Tom very carefully shifted his younger self to cradle him in the crook of his arm while Ladybird held her younger self against her chest. After a few more photos, Alya sat in the chair and they started talking about the interview plan.

When they were done, Marinette and Alya got up to leave. Alya took little Keva and put her back in her baby sling. Black Tom stood and changed his grip on his younger self to hand him back to Marinette. As he did so, baby Louis let out a sharp wail of pain.

Marinette took him quickly, panicked. “What? What is it, baby?” She saw the problem at the same moment Black Tom did. “Aaaa!” There was an alarmingly large trickle of blood coming from baby Louis’s arm.

“I’m sorry!” Black Tom cried. The scratch was small in objective terms, but baby Louis was so tiny that it ran half the length of his upper arm. “I didn’t mean to!” He scrambled for something to stop the bleeding as his baby self continued to cry. Ladybird darted to the kitchen and tossed him one of the new dish rags. When he caught it, a smear of bright red appeared on the cloth, transferred from his own claw. He held the cloth out to Marinette.

She collected herself enough to snatch the cloth and press it against her baby’s arm. She held it there for a few seconds, then wiped it and removed the cloth. The trickle of blood had been wiped away, but the scratch was red and ugly, and fresh blood instantly poured out of it.

Beside her, Alya hissed at the wound. “That looks like it needs stitches.”

Marinette clamped the cloth back over the scratch. “Stitches?!”

“I’m so, so sorry!” Black Tom cried.

“It’s all right,” Alya told him—because Marinette was still somewhat panicked. She took her friend by the arm and pulled her toward the door. “Come on. The hospital’s not that far, and the scratch isn’t that bad. He’ll survive.” Over her shoulder, she told Black Tom and Ladybird, “Half an hour at the spot we talked about. Find me there, and make it look good!”

Ladybird followed them to the door and closed it behind them. Black Tom’s shoulders slumped. “She’s gonna hate me now.”

“She’s not gonna hate you. She’s your mother.” Ladybird put a hand on his shoulder.

“She’s gonna hate Black Tom,” he clarified. “What if she doesn’t trust me to be on the team anymore?”

“It was an accident. She knows that. When she calms down, she’s not gonna blame you.”

Black Tom really wasn’t so sure about that. His mother could be extremely protective when someone she loved was hurt. “We might as well go out and get seen before we have to meet Au—Alya.” They were both making a real effort to use the others’ current names, even when only talking to each other. They really needed to not slip up.

“Okay, but . . . ” Ladybird grinned. “Wasn’t that the most amazing thing ever? I just held _myself_.”

Black Tom felt his lips curl into a smirk, despite everything. “You ever want someone else to do it for you, just say the word.” He was fairly certain that hadn’t been what he’d meant to say when he’d opened his mouth. Surely he’d had something less creepy planned.

But she snorted a surprised laugh. “Is that a promise, pretty boy?”

His face flushed with heat. “I—it—do you—” Whatever nerve he’d had to lay down that line abandoned him. It was like they’d been playing a game of ping pong for the past ten years or so and he’d finally learned how to return her serve, only for her next move to be a power slam into his face. “We’d better get going!” He practically dove out the window.

#

“What do you mean you’re at the hospital?!” Adrien clutched the phone in his hand so hard, he thought he might break it. It was a good thing he was in Marinette’s bedroom. He didn’t want to upset her parents even if he was upset himself.

“It’s fine!” his fiancée assured him. “Everything’s fine. Louis just got a little scratch on his arm.”

“If it’s little, why did you have to go to the hospital?” he asked.

“He may have needed a few . . . small . . . teeny tiny . . . stitches.”

“Stitches?!” Adrien kicked away from the computer before he accidentally smashed the keyboard and deleted something important. “What scratched him so bad he needed stitches?”

“Well . . . Black Tom was holding him, and he caught him just a little bit with his claw.”

“What?! The suit is for fighting bad guys, not holding tiny, delicate babies!” Adrien smacked his hand to his forehead. “He’s older than we are. How does he not know that?”

“Don’t be mad at him,” Marinette pleaded. “It was my fault for not considering his claws when I offered to let him hold Louis. He just looked like someone who really loves babies and wanted to hold one. Although . . . maybe I had it wrong. You know, I think he might be in love with Ladybird.”

Adrien huffed. “Of course he is.”

“You noticed already?!”

“No. But it’s how it is, right? The Ladybug and the Cat. Aren’t they always soulmates? And I’m not angry. Well, I’m a little angry, but . . . Is Louis okay?”

“Yes, of course he is. The doctor said he may have a scar, but there was no real damage done. He’s crying because it hurts, though. Poor little thing. It’ll probably be sore for a little while.”

Adrien took a deep breath. _It’s fine. Everything’s fine. Kids get hurt. Usually on their own, but accidents happen._ “I’m sending a car to pick you up.”

Marinette knew not to argue. Or maybe her silence was because of guilt.

“Marinette,” he said softly, “it’s not your fault either, you know.”

“I know.” She didn’t sound entirely like she believed it.

Adrien smiled, wishing he could hug her. “Look on the bright side. If he does have a scar, he’ll have a cool story to tell people about how he got it. How many people can say they got their first wound from a superhero?”

Marinette snorted a laugh. “You’re a dork.”

Adrien wanted to kiss her so badly right then. “I love you. Hurry home.”

#

When Black Tom returned to Kim’s apartment, the first thing he did was grab his new phone off the counter and pull up the Ladyblog. Luckily, Max had set that site as the browser’s home page.

“Is it up yet?” Ladybird asked, hovering by his shoulder.

She was so close, he imagined he could feel her heat, but he’d heard her approach, so he didn’t jump. “It looks like.” He went over to the couch to watch, and she plopped down beside him, leaning on his arm to get a good look at the screen. He swallowed at the contact, and when he turned his head, her face was so close to his, he could have kissed her. A strong urge to do so nearly overcame him, but he fought it back and returned his attention to the phone screen. There was a video in the top post. He hit play.

Alya had done a good job at making it looked unstaged. The video showed Black Tom and Ladybird from below as they hopped over some rooftops, then down to the street by a fountain. The loud pounding of Alya’s feet accompanied her shout. “Hey, wait up! New superheroes, wait up!”

They turned, pretending to just hear her.

“Oh, we look so good!” Ladybird squealed, squeezing Black Tom’s forearm in excitement.

On the screen, Alya caught up to them. “I’m with the Ladyblog, the premier website about Ladybug and her team. Can you tell us who you are? Are you new members of Ladybug’s team?”

“I’m Ladybird,” said Ladybird, striking a classic hands-on-hips pose.

“And I’m Black Tom,” said Black Tom, adopting one of his neutral modeling poses. It was incredibly strange to see himself on video in this costume. He’d worn a lot of strange clothes in his time as a model, but this was one of the strangest. “We are part of the team, but . . . ”

Ladybird finished. “We’re temporarily replacing Ladybug and Cat Noir.”

“What?” Alya gasped. “Replacing them? What happened? Are they okay?”

“They’re fine,” Ladybird assured her, looking directly into the camera, speaking to all of Paris. “They just need a little break. So we’re taking over for them for a little while.”

“A break?” Alya’s voice turned sly. Now that they’d established that Ladybug and Cat Noir were okay, she went into gossip reporter mode. “As in maternity leave?”

Black Tom smiled for the camera. “As it happens, yes. Ladybug had her baby, and she wants everyone to know that they’re both doing great.” Marinette and Alya had decided that Ladybug’s baby was something that everyone would want to know about anyway, so it made sense to use it as the excuse for her absence. But it felt oddly surreal for Black Tom to be the one announcing his own birth to the public.

Alya let out an excited squeal as if this was all news to her, then her tone got even more gossipy. “And Cat Noir’s absence? Could it be that Ladybug’s baby really is his?”

Ladybird winked. “We can’t say too much about that, but secret identities are funny things, ya know?”

Alya started to ask another question, but just like they’d planned, Ladybird said they needed to go, and the two of them took off. The camera turned to show Alya. “Looks like Paris is going to have a new Ladybug and Cat Noir—sorry, Ladybird and Black Tom—for a while. Let’s all congratulate Ladybug”—she winked—“and maybe Cat Noir on their new little one.”

The video ended. Ladybird fell back against the couch cushion. “I think that went well.”

“Yeah,” Black Tom agreed. “We didn’t mess up our lines or anything.”

“I think Mom—Alya was wrong, though. We’re not gonna be the only thing people are talking about.”

Black Tom set the phone on the coffee table and leaned back next to her, their shoulders touching. “It was a good idea to get the news out there before anyone did too much worrying about why Ladybug and Cat Noir were gone. And if they’re speculating about their relationship status, they’re less likely to figure out they’re really gone because they were found out.”

They both detransformed and settled further into the couch while Plagg flew to the kitchen for food. Tikki praised them on the good job they did with the plan and asked what people were saying about them, so Louis picked up the phone again and scrolled through the comments on the video with Keva beside him and Tikki perched on her shoulder.

The comments were almost entirely positive, with a lot of congratulations for Ladybug, squealing about the possibility of Ladybug and Cat Noir being a couple, and encouragement for the new heroes. Not to mention more than a few comments about the fact that the new heroes were adults and how they both looked quite nice in their costumes (or words to that general effect). Louis was used to comments like that, so he barely even noticed them, but he was mostly glad that people didn’t think the costume made him look silly.

“Louis,” Keva said speculatively.

He turned his head to find her staring at his arm.

“What’s this?” Keva lightly ran her fingertips over the bare skin of his biceps, pushing up the sleeve of his t-shirt.

His muscle twitched in response, but he pretended it was nothing. “What’s what?”

“Look.” With her fingers, she traced along part of his arm.

Louis followed her fingers with his eyes. A long strip of his skin was just slightly paler than the skin around it. The edges were fuzzy, and he had to look closely to see it at all, but . . .

He gasped and touched the spot with his own fingers in disbelief. The long, paler part of his arm looked suspiciously like . . . “A scar.” A very old scar that hadn’t been there a couple hours ago.

Louis met Keva’s eyes as the weight of what this meant sunk in. There was good news and bad news. The good news was that this meant there were no other timelines, that even though they were changing the past, the future they went back to would be _their_ time, _their_ home. Time hadn’t branched off when they’d come back in time, as he’d overheard Max speculating might have happened. Louis had avoided thinking about that possibility because it would have meant that as soon as he’d left, he would have probably been unable to actually return to his own time. But the bad news was that, with only one timeline in existence, if they did change anything to screw up the timeline, that was it. They’d be stuck with the consequences of their actions, unable to even console themselves that their real home was still out there somewhere.

“We need to be really careful,” Louis murmured.

Keva, almost never at a loss for words, could only nod.


	103. Chapter 103

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is random, but I saw this image on the internet and thought, "Someone should draw an Adrien/Marinette version of this pose." https://i.pinimg.com/originals/72/f0/dc/72f0dc5005d95931b4e356678e946696.jpg

Gabriel scowled at the screen of his workstation. This was what he got for sleeping on the job. While he’d been catching up on the sleep he’d missed while controlling the Dark Owl, Adrien and Marinette had not only been planning their next move but putting it into action. How had they found replacements so quickly? Or had they merely given their Miraculouses to the Guardian and he’d already had backups in mind?

In a way, Gabriel was proud of them. Thinking and acting so swiftly in response to a threat, not to mention getting ahead of it in the press to control the narrative (because he was certain that they’d had a hand in planning the Ladyblog video). Those were traits that would serve them well as the heirs to his company.

Still, it was extremely vexing how his enemies-in-costume had outplayed him so quickly. He had no idea who these new replacements were. They were obviously adults, so unless they’d been chosen exclusively by the Guardian—and that was a big ‘if’—then they were probably acquaintances of Adrien’s. It was unlikely that Marinette knew many adults who weren’t teachers or parents of her friends, or possibly customers at the bakery, and no teen would be likely to choose someone from those groups to take over something so important to her. Thus, it was most likely that they were people that Adrien knew from his modeling work in some way, which meant that Gabriel could probably figure out who they were if he put his mind and resources to it.

Though it was also possible that the whole thing was a ruse to make him—Hawk Moth— _think_ that they’d been replaced without actually giving up their Miraculouses for more than a few publicity shots in an attempt to throw him off their scent. Time would tell, he supposed.

He typed out instructions for Nathalie and e-mailed them to her so she could get started on a new investigation tomorrow. It was back to square one.

#

Louis should have been used to spending the night under the same roof as Keva. They’d literally lived together for the first seven years of their lives, the first four of those sharing a nursery. Even after her family had moved into their own place when her youngest sister came along, there had still been plenty of sleepovers. But those sleepovers had been few and far between by the time they were sixteen; the last time had been during their final year of high school. It was a thing they’d done as kids, and there’d always been at least one parent and usually multiple siblings or other friends around.

Staying in an apartment with the woman he loved, alone, felt entirely different.

Louis lay on the couch, grateful that it was long enough for him to fully stretch out on. He’d had a very tiring day: traveling through time, becoming a superhero, meeting younger versions of his parents and _himself_. He should have conked out as soon as his head hit the pillow, but somehow he was still lying awake as the clock on his phone ticked close to eleven p.m.

“Either go to sleep or go away and let _me_ sleep,” Plagg complained after Louis yet again changed position, bouncing the whole couch slightly. The kwami was curled up on the back couch cushion like a pocket-sized cat. He would have been adorable if he weren’t always complaining about something in that grating voice of his.

“Sorry,” Louis murmured. “Can you get jet lag from time-travel?”

“Probably,” Plagg said.

Maybe that was it, then. What time of day had it been when he’d left, and what time had it been when they’d arrived? Louis couldn’t remember. Was Keva still awake too? He didn’t hear her, but she had the bedroom door closed. Knocking would wake her up, and opening the door to check on her would be kinda creepy if he didn’t have a good reason.

He picked up his phone and scrolled through the Ladyblog. There were hundreds more comments about the new heroes, most of them really encouraging. Was this why his parents had put up with the danger and disruption to their lives? Because of how grateful the people were for their help? Comic books and movies always made being a superhero seem like a thankless task, where the trade-off for having cool powers and knowing you were doing good was the complete lack of gratitude from those you helped, even sometimes being seen as the enemy. Maybe it was like that for other heroes in other parts of the world, but Paris adored Ladybug and Cat Noir.

_I’ve got some big shoes to fill_ , Louis thought.

He got up from the couch. “Sorry, Plagg, but I think I need to tire myself out, and Paris is beautiful at night. Claws out.”

The problem with that plan was that he’d forgotten about the nearly endless stamina, so he didn’t wander back to the apartment for at least a few hours. It had been a productive few hours, though. Although there’d been no villains to fight, he’d stopped to chat with a lot of people who were still out and about. He’d done enough PR in his life that he knew a bit about how to schmooze. And he’d found some spots that he really wanted to show Keva some time while they were here.

But as soon as he detransformed and plopped onto the couch, the tiredness hit him, and he was out like a light.

He was woken by the sound of a door opening. Before he even opened his eyes, he knew it was daylight. For the briefest moment, he almost thought everything that had happened yesterday had been a dream. But when he opened his eyes and saw Keva emerging from the bathroom, hair wet and a towel wrapped around her body, he knew it wasn’t. Either that or he was still dreaming.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty,” she said. “Bathroom’s yours if you want it.”

_Now, that’s a sight worth waking up for_ , he thought, but all that came out of his mouth was, “Okay.”

#

“What was up with yesterday?” Mylène asked before class.

“Yeah,” chirped Rose. “How did you all get sick? Is it contagious?”

Quietly observing from his spot in the back of the class, Nathaniel’s eyes lingered on Rose. It was both good and weird to see her all happy and care-free again, after having met her much older and grittier self in that horrible future. He really hoped that the choices he’d made would be enough to fulfill his promise to her.

At the front, Chloe didn’t turn around at her desk to make eye contact with any of them, which only added to the scornful tone of her words. “Please. All of them getting sick on the same day? Obviously they were skipping school, probably to do something lame.”

Nathaniel said, “I was out because Alix had a rough night, so I was sitting with her.”

“And the rest of us _were_ sick,” Marinette insisted. Despite having a baby now, she was on time for class more often than ever. That was probably thanks to Adrien. “We, uh . . . we’d all gotten together the night before for some studying, and we ate some sketchy take-out and got food poisoning. Right?”

Nino, Kim, and Max were quick to corroborate her story.

Chloe turned her head just far enough to raise an extremely dubious eyebrow at Adrien, then she sniffed and faced forward again, clearly stating that she didn’t believe their story but didn’t care enough to keep calling them on it.

_One, two, three, four_ . . . Nathaniel counted heads in the class. If he included himself, Adrien, and Marinette, half of their class was on the superhero team. Though he wasn’t sure if Adrien and Marinette counted anymore—or at least not while they didn’t have Miraculouses. If he counted all of them plus Alix, a majority of their class at least knew his own superhero identity and was involved in some way.

Class started, and he pulled out his sketch book. In half an hour, he had a whole page full of rough sketches of those lizard aliens. He turned the page and started working on a more detailed portrait but didn’t get very far into it when the akuma alert went off.

Miss Bustier didn’t even try to keep class going while everyone pulled out their phones to see the alert. As he looked at the flashing exclamation mark on his screen, Nathaniel’s heart started racing. With his other hand, he reached into his pocket and clutched his Miraculous. His other pocket shifted, and he looked down to see Fluff peering up at him from inside it.

This was it. His first time doing real superhero work: fighting a supervillain.

Kim shot to his feet. “Miss Bustier, I forgot to tell Ondine something! Can I go call her?” He was already bolting down the stairs before Miss Bustier could even open her mouth. “Okaythanksbye!”

“I need to get some shots for the Ladyblog!” Alya said, grabbing Nino’s hand on her way down the side stairs. “And Nino needs to help me. Be back after the fight!” They, too, ran out before Miss Bustier could respond.

“I have to go to the bathroom!” Max said, falling back on Ol’ Reliable.

Nathaniel quietly got out of his seat. As he did so, he heard a soft _shuff_ to his right. Juleka had scooted closer to Rose and was looking past her at him, smirking.

“You got called up too?” Juleka murmured. “Congrats.”

Nathaniel’s face grew hot, and he sidled away to the stairs against the wall without confirming anything. Not that he was surprised. From some of the things she’d said when no one else was paying attention to her, he’d suspected she’d figured the others out, too.

Miss Bustier caught him moseying down the stairs before he got halfway to the door. She shot him a challenging look, but he couldn’t let that stop him.

“I need to”—he sidled down a step—“um”—another step—“go, um”—step—“check on the twins.” When he got to the bottom, he noticed that Adrien and Marinette hadn’t moved. They met his eyes, but he couldn’t read anything from them other than worry and maybe frustration, and Miss Bustier looked like she might actually try to stop him, so he darted out the door like a . . . well, like a rabbit heading for its burrow.

#

Black Tom and Ladybird met up with the rest of the team at the Arc de Triomphe. Or most of the rest of the team.

“Where’s M—” Black Tom’s breath hitched just for a moment as he caught himself. “—arinette and Adrien?”

Rena Rouge raised an eyebrow at him. “Not coming. With all of us bailing from class at once, she didn’t want to draw any more attention. And since they don’t have Miraculouses right now, she thought they’d hold us back more than help.”

A scream drew their attention to the Champs-Élysées, where lots of people were running from a supervillain who was flying around and laughing maniacally.

“So, I guess we’re just winging it, then?” Ladybird said. She didn’t wait for an answer before throwing out her yo-yo and leaping toward the villain.

With cries of excitement, King Monkey, Carapace, Rena Rouge, and Pegasus followed her.

“Second Chance.”

Black Tom looked behind him to see Viperion twisting his bracelet. More time-travel—at least potentially. “Do you remember what happened before after you use that?”

“I do,” Viperion answered. “No one else does.”

_Will I?_ Black Tom wondered. But before he could get distracted by questions about how time-travel Miraculouses worked, Viperion clapped him on the shoulder and bounded away. That snapped his head back into the game, and Black Tom followed.

The villain was called Fly Ball. Judging by the dude’s ranting, it sounded like he was a baseball player with an unlucky tendency to hit fly balls—so much so that his teammates teased him with the nickname.

As Black Tom’s first villain, he was pretty underwhelming.

While lots of people ran around screaming and trying to find cover, Fly Ball and some of his minions flew around in the air. The minions were mostly fighting with the heroes already, with Fly Ball juking around to avoid direct confrontations. Black Tom watched him for a moment to get an idea of his powers. Fly Ball had a sack full of . . . _sort of_ balls . . . slung across his chest. When he pulled a ball out, Black Tom saw that it was about the size of a baseball, but red and . . . alive. With creepy arms and a face and everything. Fly Ball threw it at woman running away, and the ball creature grabbed onto her with its creepy arms, scuttled to the spot between her shoulder blades, and latched on with its arms while it morphed and grew. Red wings sprouted from the woman—or, rather, from the ball creature attached to her—and feathery, red armor spread across her arms and torso. Instantly, she stopped screaming, launched herself into the air, and joined another minion in a fight against King Monkey.

The whole thing was incredibly disconcerting, but Black Tom knew what to do.

“Cataclysm!” he shouted, leaping with a boost from the stick in his other hand, and reached right up to the wings on the woman’s back. They turned black and disintegrated. The woman came back to her senses and screamed as she plummeted thirty feet to the ground.

Black Tom tried to grab her, but she was already below him, and he couldn’t reach her if gravity pulled them down at the same speed.

A red blur zipped in from the left, and Ladybird caught the woman just before she hit the ground.

Black Tom landed right beside them. “Our first fight, and I’m already falling for you.” What was it about this suit that made him blurt out such stupid lines? It wasn’t like the mask was actually hiding his identity from _her_.

Ladybird set the woman down and sent her on her way before grinning at Black Tom. “Just now? You’ve got some catching up to do, Tomcat.”

He bit the inside of his lip to keep from stuttering and ignored the heat in his cheeks. “If there’s one thing cats are good at, it’s catching birds.” _What am I even saying? What did she even mean?_ He had no idea, but he was on a roll, so he had to keep going or face humiliation.

“Hey, guys!” Carapace called out. He was using his shield to fight off one of the minions coming at him from above. “Supervillain? Remember? Maybe flirt _after_ the fight?”

Ladybird blushed and looked properly chastised. Black Tom pouted. She was supposed to blush with embarrassment because he’d laid down an awesome comeback, not because her dad scolded her.

“We’re not flirting!” Black Tom told Carapace, maybe a little petulantly.

“Sure, dude.” Carapace bashed the minion in the face with his shield. “Dang, you two are even worse than Ladybug and Cat Noir.”

Black Tom paled. They really needed to avoid anyone making comparisons between him and his parents.

“We should probably get to the whole supervillain thing,” Ladybird told him.

“Uh, yeah. Right. But we weren’t flirting.”

She raised an eyebrow at him and rolled her eyes. “Sure, dude.”


	104. Chapter 104

According to Alya, the fight with Fly Ball had gone just fine, but that didn’t make Marinette feel any less guilty about not having been involved. She was team leader, after all.

“You’re frowning,” Adrien said as they walked through the sewer. Not in the water, of course, but along the edge. Luckily, Paris had pretty clean sewers. “Does that mean you’re still thinking about yesterday?”

She forced her frown off her face. “Not . . . really . . . ”

Adrien chuckled and took her hand. “Remember what Alya said? Fly Ball was a Bubbler-level threat. Almost Mr. Pigeon. There was no way it could have gotten out of hand, not even if Black Tom and Ladybird had been alone.”

Marinette took comfort in his words and the warmth of his hand. “I know.” From Alya’s report, apparently the new heroes had figured out how to fight it pretty quickly. The fact that they could use their special abilities without limit made taking out the minions easy—Cataclysming the wings and then catching the citizens before they hit the ground—and Fly Ball himself didn’t put up much of a fight once they focused on him. “I guess I’m being silly.”

“You don’t have to take all the responsibility on yourself, Marinette. Trust your team.”

“I do! Of course I do!”

He leaned over to kiss her temple as they walked. “Good. Where are we going, anyway?”

“We’re here.” They turned a corner and found Ladybird and Black Tom waiting for them. “Did you guys find the place all right?”

“Sewers are down, right?” asked Ladybird.

Black Tom smirked and shook his head. “Yeah, your directions were fine. But, uh, what are we doing here?”

Marinette grinned. “It’s a secret. Come on.” She led them through a couple more blocks of sewer paths before they came across a door. She opened it, and they squeezed through a narrow, concrete hallway with dirty walls that they were all very careful not to touch. Then there was another door. This, she knocked on.

It opened after a few seconds, revealing Master Fu. “Marinette. Good. Come in.”

The four of them filed through the doorway and into the room. It looked like some kind of maintenance room which hadn’t been used in a decade, but it had electricity and was reasonably clean. Fu had set it up with a futon, a low table, and a few other small necessities, including the old phonograph beside the futon.

“Wow,” Adrien said as he looked around. “You really went full Master Splinter, didn’t you, Master Fu?”

Black Tom snickered. Fu said, “I don’t understand the reference, but this location was a lucky find. I should be able to remain here safely unless something drastic happens. It is not ideal, of course, but it is good enough.”

They took seats on the floor around the table—at least there were enough pillows for them all to sit on—and Fu served tea. Longg floated peacefully nearby, listening but not engaging in the conversation.

“So, these are the ones you’ve chosen as your replacements,” Fu said, looking Ladybird and Black Tom over. They squirmed a bit under his scrutiny, which Marinette didn’t blame them for.

“Not exactly,” Marinette admitted. “I think my future self may have chosen them.” At Fu’s raised eyebrow, she briefly explained what had happened.

Fu nodded solemnly. “I understand. It it certainly a great risk, but sometimes risks need to be taken. Is telling me this the only reason you have come?”

“No, Master.”

“I thought not.” He got up and returned with the Miraculous Box, setting it on the table before Marinette. “Choose what you need.”

“Adrien and I shouldn’t be active in the fights unless we have to,” Marinette said, examining the Miraculouses that were still in the box. She remembered what each of them could do, so she weighed their powers against what might best suit their needs. Adrien didn’t make any suggestions or requests but silently deferred to her as the team leader. Her hands were drawn to two Miraculouses in particular, and she picked them up.

Adrien raised his eyebrows. “The Bee?”

Marinette nodded. It felt right. She had been wrong before, but only when she let her emotions override her intuition and reason, and that wasn’t happening now. “Chloe won’t be happy, but yeah. If the team gets in a tough spot, I can jump in and use Venom on the villain, as long as I can catch them by surprise.”

“What’s the other one?” Adrien asked. “I don’t recognize it.”

She handed him the small piece of jewelry: two rings connected by a chain. “You wear it on your thumb. It’s the Rooster Miraculous. It and the Bee aren’t exactly a pair, but their powers mirror each other’s. The Bee grants the power of subjection, and the Rooster grants the power of liberation.”

“Ohhh,” Adrien said, taking the thumb ring. “So if someone gets frozen or mind-controlled, I can break them out of it?”

“Exactly.”

“Why haven’t we used it before? Something like that would really come in handy with a lot of the villains we fight.”

Marinette didn’t have a great answer for him, other than, “It never seemed the time for it, and I never felt like I had the right person in mind for it. Even now, we’re definitely borrowing these. We’re not the right owners for them. But as long as we use them well and with good intentions, I think it will be fine.”

Adrien put the ring on, and the rooster kwami appeared. “Hello. I am Orikko.”

Marinette put the comb in her hair, and Pollen appeared. “You are not Queen Chloe.”

Fu explained the situation to the kwamis, and they agreed to partner temporarily with Marinette and Adrien (not that they exactly had a choice, but Marinette felt better having them on board).

“Do we have to keep the Miraculouses on us?” Marinette asked Fu. Both the Bee and the Rooster Miraculouses were hard to hide when worn, and it would be better if Marinette and Adrien weren’t seen wearing new jewelry. If Hawk Moth saw them, he’d probably figure out what had happened immediately.

“As long as you keep them with you and don’t renounce them, no,” Fu said.

Marinette tested it by taking the comb out of her hair. Pollen did not disappear. Relieved, Marinette put the comb into her purse. “Good. Pollen, Orikko, even though Adrien and I plan on transforming to help with battles, the idea is that we’ll mostly help by staying in contact with the rest of our team on the earpieces to give directions and advice. We’ll stay out of sight unless we really _have_ to jump in to help. Our previous identities were compromised, and we don’t want Hawk Moth figuring out that the former Ladybug and Cat Noir have new Miraculouses, or he might try to take them.”

The two kwamis looked concerned at that, but they didn’t argue with the plan.

Adrien took off the thumb ring and slid it into the inside pocket of his shirt. “It feels good to have a Miraculous again, even if it’s not the right one for me.”

Orikko flew once around Adrien’s head. “It has a been a long time since I had any master. It feels wonderful simply to be out of the box.”

“I can relate to that feeling,” Adrien said with a laugh.

Fu closed the box. “If your business here is complete, Marinette, I would like to speak to your replacements in private.”

“Of course.” Seeing the uncertainty on their faces, she told them, “It’s fine. Master Fu is the Guardian of the Miraculouses. I trust him completely.”

It spoke volumes of the faith these strangers had in her that Ladybird and Black Tom instantly relaxed.

Marinette and Adrien said goodbye to Fu. They were halfway down the narrow hall when small voices called out their names.

“Tikki?” Marinette spun and looked past Adrien.

Tikki zipped toward her, passed Adrien, circled Marinette a few times in excitement, then pressed herself against Marinette’s cheek. “Hi again, Marinette!”

“Plagg!” Adrien hugged his kwami, and Plagg grumbled and pretended to be annoyed by him.

After greeting their friends, Marinette and Adrien both looked back at the closed door to Master Fu’s new room. “He wanted to know who they are?” she asked.

“No Miraculous holder’s identity can be secret from the Guardian,” Tikki explained.

“It’s really great to see you,” Adrien said, “but is it okay for you to be out here?”

Plagg made a dismissive sound. “They can talk amongst themselves for a few minutes. But you!” He flew up in Orikko’s face. “This kid’s not yours, got it? He’s mine. So you’d better take good care of him.”

The feathers on the top of Orikko’s head stood straighter in indignation.

“Guys, please, don’t fight,” said Adrien.

The two kwamis glared at each other but didn’t fight.

Tikki flew up next to Pollen. “Please be kind to Marinette, Pollen. She’s very different from Chloe, but you should like her. She’s a very good person.”

“Of course,” said Pollen, fluffing the fuzzy ruff around her neck. “I’m always kind.”

#

On Saturday afternoon, Gabriel wrapped up work in his atelier and moved into the foyer. Workmen were moving Adrien’s piano down the stairs—a difficult task, but they handled it well. Considering the fee Gabriel was paying them, he expected nothing less.

Nathalie stood in the foyer, supervising the movers.

“How much is left?” Gabriel asked her.

“That’s the last of the large items,” she answered, checking her tablet. “He didn’t want the bed or the desk, since apparently both would take up too much room in space he’s sharing.”

“Yes, I recall.” Gabriel had seen the bills for the new furniture the children had wanted for the house. Adrien had ordered twin-sized beds for all of them so the shared bedrooms weren’t too crowded, as well as a smaller desk for himself for the same reason. Marinette had incorporated Adrien’s television and couch into her design plans for the living room. “Is he taking any of the entertainment?”

“He’s taking the arcade games. The other boys were willing to sacrifice some of their bedroom space to ensure he kept them.”

It was yet another reminder that even if they were now parents, they were still just teenage boys. As a father, Gabriel was glad that Adrien had thought of a way for himself and his friends to retain as much of their remaining childhood as possible with his dorm house idea. Gabriel would have preferred to have kept Adrien, Marinette, and Louis under his own roof, but he had a strong feeling that if he’d tried forcing them to stay, they would have rebelled and moved out without any input or oversight from him. Now that he knew Adrien had been sneaking out of the house to play superhero, he was even more certain of that.

Unfortunately, his small test the other day had confirmed that Adrien and Marinette truly had given up their Miraculouses. The new heroes, Ladybird and Black Tom, were definitely not Marinette and Adrien. There was one other new hero, White Rabbit, but Gabriel was nearly certain that he wasn’t Adrien. Gabriel remembered from reading the Miraculous spell book that the Rabbit Miraculous granted the power of time-travel. Something told him there was a significance in that hero showing up at the same time as Ladybird and Black Tom. He wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but he tucked the suspicion away in his mind.

“He’s also taking the foosball table,” Nathalie continued. “And one tenth of his video game collection. Those, as well as all of his clothes, have been packed in boxes, which the movers will see to next.”

“Good, good,” Gabriel said distractedly. He glanced down at Nathalie, and his eyes slid to her large belly. She was at nearly forty weeks and could give birth at any time. To _his_ child. He clenched his fists and forced the issue from his mind. “Nathalie.” He moved back into the atelier, and she followed him. “Has anything been discovered about the new heroes?”

“I’m afraid not, sir. I have three investigators looking into it, but none have discovered anything. Thirty of the men and women Adrien works most closely with have been investigated, but none show signs of possibly being the new heroes.”

“Keep eyes on all of them until a definite determination can be made. And expand the search. Anyone Adrien has contact with, his age and older. We don’t know precisely when Miraculous users are considered ‘adult’ as far as the Miraculous magic is concerned, and it’s possible that it varies by individual. And have someone look into Marinette’s acquaintances, as well. I doubt she knows as many adults as Adrien does, but I want no stone left unturned.”

“Yes, sir.”

When the movers finished loading the truck, Gabriel and Nathalie went along in the sedan to Adrien’s house. After arriving, Nathalie resumed directing the movers, and Gabriel looked for his son.

“Father!” Adrien ran down the stairs, practically bouncing with excitement. “This is amazing! Thank you again for buying this house for me.”

“I am pleased that you’re happy,” Gabriel said, unable to help but smile at seeing his son so happy. The two of them stepped into the kitchen as movers brought things into the living room. Gabriel hadn’t seen the inside of the house since the purchase and inspection. Nathalie had coordinated with Marinette to see to the remodeling details, so some of the interior was new to him. The paint and kitchen cupboards were new, though she’d kept the marble countertops. The overall look was tasteful and modern. A dash more feminine than Gabriel would have chosen for himself, but not bad. He was curious to see what she had in mind for decorations once everything was moved in.

Footsteps pounded on the stairs, signaling Marinette’s arrival. “Oh, good!” She ran up to the movers, who were just setting down the couch. “No, put that over here, please! And the TV goes there. That bookcase will go against that wall once the TV’s in. Oh, hello, Mr. Agreste!” She waved to him across the long living room and the kitchen island. As soon as he acknowledged her, she returned to issuing orders to the movers.

“She seems to have things well in hand,” he observed.

Adrien chuckled. “Yeah. The others didn’t have a lot of their own furniture to bring over, and some of them got new stuff anyway, but she’s managed to make everything work together. I’m not really sure, but I think some of the new pieces she picked out helped tie the rest of the stuff together, plus she was careful which rooms the different things went in.”

“Oh? May I see?”

“Sure! Let me give you a tour.” Walking ahead of him, Adrien led Gabriel toward the stairs.

While his son wasn’t looking at him, Gabriel took careful note of Adrien’s right hand, where he’d previously worn a silver ring. The ring was gone.

As they passed the living room, Gabriel looked at Marinette, who was still talking to the movers. Her hair was pulled into her usual pigtails, so her earlobes were visible. No earrings. And no other visible jewelry.

Adrien took him up the stairs and into the different rooms. Gabriel nodded and made polite sounds. The general look of the place was nothing impressive, though it wasn’t aesthetically offensive, either, which was probably a feat in itself, considering the circumstances.

In the nursery, they found Geneviève looking after Louis and three other infants, as well as a red-haired boy.

“Pretty much everything in here’s new,” Adrien said, “so it’s been done for a few days already. Nathaniel, this is my father. Father, this is Nathaniel.”

The red-haired boy turned from where he’d been staring at the wall and started. “Oh! H-hello, Mr. Agreste.”

“What are you doing?” Gabriel asked him.

Nathaniel waved awkwardly at the wall. “I’m going to paint a mural here, so I’m just planning it out.”

“Are you? That’s quite ambitious.”

“Yes, sir. I suppose. But art’s kind of my thing, and everyone thought it might be fun for the kids.”

Ah, yes. This was the boy he’d turned into Evillustrator. Not very useful to his plans, if Gabriel recalled. The boy had spent the whole time trying to go on a date and then being a mild nuisance to Chloe. And he hadn’t even been entirely compliant. Definitely not typical villain behavior. Gabriel frowned, thinking back. If he wasn’t mistaken, Marinette had been the girl whom Evillustrator had asked on a date. Did he still have feelings for Gabriel’s future daughter-in-law? Gabriel hoped Adrien wouldn’t be so stupid as to invite Nathaniel to live here if he did, but it was worth asking about.

“I’m sure it will be. You’re the father of the twins, yes? With . . . Alix, was it?”

Nathaniel blushed and looked down. That was a good sign. “Yes, sir.”

Gabriel glanced aside to Adrien to find his son smirking. When Gabriel raised an eyebrow in question, Adrien leaned closer and whispered, “Nathaniel’s in love with Alix, but he hasn’t told her yet.”

The tension that had began to creep up Gabriel’s spine eased. “I see. In that case, I wish you well with it.”

The boy’s face turned an even deeper red. “Thank you, Mr. Agreste.”

Gabriel checked in with Geneviève, who was changing the baby girl’s diaper. Everything was in order, the babies were doing fine, and Geneviève was already settled in comfortably. So Adrien and Gabriel continued the tour.

In the girls’ room upstairs, Nino and Alya were unpacking boxes. They were having a lively discussion about shoes but jumped when they heard Adrien and Gabriel enter.

“Du—uh, Mr. Agreste,” said Nino, dropping a sandal back into a box as if it were contraband. “You’re here.”

“A keen eye for detail you have there, Nino,” Gabriel drawled.

“We just weren’t expecting you,” Alya said, sounding slightly annoyed.

Gabriel’s eye was drawn to her necklace. The shirt she wore buttoned up the front, and the top two buttons were undone. A necklace that looked very much like the Fox Miraculous lay just over the third button. “I hope I’m not intruding. That’s a lovely necklace.”

Her eyes widened, and she hastily shoved it under her shirt. It had probably come out when she’d been bent over the boxes. “Thanks! It’s, uh, just a family thing. From my great aunt, who died recently. That’s why I like to wear it, but it doesn’t go with most of my outfits, so I keep it hidden.”

“Of course,” Gabriel said, trying to smile politely rather than smirk. Between the appearance of the necklace itself and his existing suspicions caused by her flirtation with Carapace, he had already been nearly certain, but her obvious lie cinched it. This girl was indeed Rena Rouge.

Gabriel made polite conversation with the two teens who were patently uncomfortable with his presence. Their discomfort was clearly because, as Adrien’s father, he intimidated them. If only they knew the full truth. Gabriel reveled in secret amusement.

Nino didn’t try to hide the bracelet on his wrist. Perhaps he considered that it was not as obvious or that it blended in with the other bracelets he wore, but the turtle shell design was distinct enough to someone looking for it. He had to be Carapace.

Gabriel bade the two teens goodbye and returned with his son to the living room. Marinette’s parents had arrived. Marinette was still directing the movers on making adjustments to the furniture arrangement, while Sabine chatted with Nathalie and Tom was carrying a chaise longue toward the stairs.

As soon as Tom spotted Gabriel, he set the chaise down. “Gabriel! Good to see you!”

Gabriel froze halfway down the stairs, but the large man refrained from hugging him. When Gabriel made it all the way down, though, Tom draped an arm over Gabriel’s shoulders and directed him toward the kitchen, away from the others. Irritation at the unwelcome contact made Gabriel clench his jaw, but contained his reaction.

“I’m so happy that you were right about Adrien,” Tom said quietly when he released Gabriel. “I should have had more faith in him, I guess. He did see what a great girl Marinette is, even if it took him a while.”

Gabriel straightened his jacket. “Of course I was right.”

“I’m so excited for them.” Tom was making an effort to keep his voice low, but the glee on his face reinforced his words. “My baby’s so happy, and I know Adrien’s a good boy. They’ll have a wonderful life together.”

“Yes, Marinette is a good match for him. I am also pleased with how this turned out, despite the . . . unorthodox sequence of events. He has been behaving himself while living in your house, hasn’t he?”

“Oh, yes, a perfect gentleman. Though I am happy with the house situation they’ve worked out here. I’m pleased that they plan to get married, and I wouldn’t have had any real problem with it if they’d wanted to do it right away, but I think it’s good they’re waiting a little while. They’ve both still got some growing up to do.”

It was disconcerting for Gabriel to be so much of the same mind as this man who was so very different from him. But perhaps all fathers wanted the same things for their children, when it came down to it.

The happiness on Tom’s face faded, and he asked very softly, “If I may ask, have you made any progress on finding your wife?”

Gabriel’s mouth tensed. “None to speak of. But I will not give up.”

“Good.” Tom nodded. “I know how I’d feel if Sabine went missing, and I don’t know how you don’t go crazy from it. If there’s ever anything I can do to help, let me know.”

“I appreciate that, Tom,” Gabriel said. And the strange thing was, he really meant it. Even though he knew that Tom would take it all back if he ever found out the truth about him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I have my own theories about the Rooster Miraculous. I plan to explore them more thoroughly in my other fic (Who and Whose), but it was convenient to work them in here, too, since I've already accounted for all the other Miraculouses with known powers, and the Rooster is the only one that hasn't actually been explained in canon which I've bothered to come up with a detailed theory about.


	105. Chapter 105

It was the end of a (very short) era and the beginning of a new, even better (and hopefully much longer) one. Adrien had loved living with Marinette in her room, even though her chaise longue was not very comfortable to sleep on and the room had gotten crowded when Louis had arrived. But having a whole house to share with the two of them and some of their friends made him fill with so many warm fuzzies, it felt like his body was stuffed with cotton.

The day had been extremely hectic, but everyone had pitched in, and by late afternoon, everything had been unpacked and put into its own place. Sabine had mentioned how moving often took months to finally unpack everything, but with most of them being teens who only had, at most, one room worth of stuff to move each, it hadn’t worked that way, luckily. Even Nathalie and her mom were settled into their rooms, although Geneviève spent most of the time in the nursery with the kids and Nathalie had gone back to the mansion to gather some more things, saying she’d return later tonight.

But the new home wasn’t all they had to celebrate. Alix had been discharged from the hospital, and it only made sense to bring her right to her new home. Rose had still wanted to have a big welcome back party for Alix as soon as she got released, but although Alix got discharged, she was far from in top form, so they convinced Rose to hold off on the party until Alix was back at school.

They didn’t want to overwhelm Alix, so her dad and brother picked up Nathaniel, and the three of them went to get her from the hospital while Adrien, Marinette, Nino, and Alya made sure everything was ready back at the house. They tossed up a few celebratory decorations, and Tom had brought over a cake that said, ‘Welcome home, Alix’. Otherwise, they were doing the same thing they probably would have been doing on their first night in the new house. Alya made dinner with Nino’s help. (With her mom being a chef, Alya turned out to be the best cook of all of them, but she insisted that she’d help everyone else learn to cook at least adequately so they could all share cooking duties. Adrien, for one, was eager to learn. He’d already picked up a few things from Marinette’s parents, and he’d found he actually really enjoyed cooking, especially when it was for people he cared about.) Adrien and Marinette set the table and made sure everything else was in place and organized. Marinette’s interior design plan had worked out really well. Every room looked comfortable and welcoming while being practical for what it was meant for. The living room area was so big that even with a large, comfortable seating space at the front of the house (where the couch and chairs were set up facing Adrien’s huge TV, with all the gaming consoles; bookshelves with books, games, and blu-rays; and a brand new, comfortably large coffee table) there was still room for Adrien’s piano and a dining table big enough for all of them, without any part of the room feeling crowded. The dining table (one of the brand new pieces) wasn’t as large as the one at the mansion, but even as large as it was, Adrien knew it wouldn’t ever feel _too_ large as long as the seats were filled.

“You did a great job today,” Adrien told Marinette as he set the table with her. “The house design looks great.”

“Do you think so?”

“Of course I do.”

“Oh, good. I hope the others like it, too. And I’ll make sure everyone knows that we can still change things whenever we want if something isn’t working.”

Adrien set the last of the silverware in his hands down and put one hand lightly on her waist to get her to stand still for a second. “I’m sure everyone knows that.” He kissed her cheek, then pressed his head against hers. “I know it’s a little early to say this, but . . . I feel like I finally have a home. One that’s really mine.”

“Oh, Adrien.” Marinette took his head in her hands, kissed him, then pressed their foreheads together. “I’m so sorry about that, but I’m happy, too. It makes me so happy that I get to share it with you.”

Adrien wrapped his arms around her waist. “Wherever you are is my home, Milady. Now and forever. But . . . the actual building is really nice to have, too.”

She giggled. “Yeah. It still feels kinda weird, but good weird.”

“You guys done making out yet?” Nino asked.

They broke apart, blushing, as Nino and Alya came around the kitchen island, holding large, covered dishes with potholders in both hands. “Nathaniel and Alix should be here any minute,” said Alya. “And the food’s ready.”

“It smells delicious,” Adrien said eagerly. The scent of lasagna and garlic bread made his stomach rumble. This wasn’t the type of food he’d usually gotten at the mansion. If this was the kind of thing Alya normally made, Adrien was definitely going to have to keep tabs on his calorie intake. Then again, Nathalie would probably do that for him. She wasn’t here at the moment, but he figured she was giving them one night to celebrate. He didn’t want her to feel like she didn’t belong here, but it would take a little time for the others to get used to her being around—and get used to her particular personality. She was a good person with a good heart, but that wasn’t as obvious on first meeting as her mother’s was.

Sure enough, no sooner did they get all the food on the table than the front door opened.

“Wicked!” Alix said as soon as she came in, gawking at the house. “This place is amazing!”

“Alix!” Marinette ran to her and pulled her into a hug. “We’re so happy you’re here!”

Alya moved in for the next hug as Nathaniel, Jalil, and Mr. Kubdel slipped around the girls into the living room.

Once they’d all given Alix a warm welcome, Adrien turned to her relatives. “It’s nice to see you, Mr. Kubdel. Jalil. Welcome to our home.”

Jalil was gaping. “This place is so nice! My whole apartment could fit in here twice, and that’s just this floor! Alix, I am so jealous of you.”

“Well, yeah,” Alix told her brother, “my friends _are_ pretty awesome.”

Mr. Kubdel shook Adrien’s hand. “Thank you very much for offering Alix this wonderful place to live. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to provide a suitable home for her and the twins, under the circumstances. I would have done my best, but . . . I’m very grateful to you for stepping in with this offer. I see that everything I hear about you is true.”

Adrien didn’t really want to ask whether he’d meant everything he’d heard from Alix or everything he’d heard from the media. Either way, it seemed to be good, so he let the comment pass. “It’s my pleasure, sir. Truly. I’m very happy to be able to help my friends.”

“You hungry, Alix?” Alya asked. “Because dinner’s on the table.”

“I’m starving!” Even though she wasn’t moving as quickly or as smoothly as usual, she hurried toward the table. “I haven’t eaten anything decent in weeks!”

“Uh, do you want a tour, sir?” Adrien asked Mr. Kubdel. He and Jalil hadn’t been by the house yet, so he figured they were curious about where Alix would be living, though the timing wasn’t ideal.

Mr. Kubdel smiled. “Another time. Thank you, Adrien. For now, we’ll let Alix get settled in. After all she’s been through, she still needs her rest.”

Nathaniel told him, “The twins are upstairs if you want to see them. I’m not sure if they’re awake, though.”

Mr. Kubdel hesitated, but his expression softened a bit as he looked at Nathaniel. Adrien wondered how things were between the two of them. Maybe he’d ask when the guys were in their room later. “If it’s all right, I would like to say hello briefly.”

That answer seemed to please Nathaniel. “Sure. I’ll take you up. You can meet their new nanny, too.”

The three of them went upstairs, and Adrien joined the others at the dining table. They hadn’t started eating yet, but Adrien could see that they wanted to. “Could we wait for Nathaniel before we start? Please? It’s our first meal here.”

Alix pretended to be annoyed, but she said, “I guess I’ve waited this long.”

Fortunately, the others came back downstairs soon, and Jalil and Mr. Kubdel left. Nathalie was still out, and Geneviève had said she’d be in the nursery for another hour at least (she, too, was giving them time to celebrate without worrying about babies or adults). They all dug into their food, which was delicious, and the joy and companionship was everything Adrien had hoped it would be.

It didn’t take long for the conversation to turn to superhero matters. There were some things they needed to say while they had privacy to do it, though they tried to keep their voices at least low enough not to carry up two flights of stairs.

“So, Alix,” Marinette said, breaking a piece of garlic bread. “There’s a big secret we need to let you in on, but you need to know that Nathalie and Geneviève _can’t_ know about it. Cool?”

“Secret, huh?” Alix slid a curious look to Nathaniel, who was sitting beside her.

He grinned. “Yeah. It has to do with this.” He took the Rabbit Miraculous from his pocket and set it on the table. As soon as he did, Fluff popped out of hiding.

“Awesome!” It was a good thing the house was so big, or Geneviève might have heard her. “So that wasn’t a dream! But wait, aren’t you supposed to keep the superhero thing secret? Or—”

“Maybe you should let us finish,” Marinette said. Then she took out the Bee Miraculous and set it onto the table. Pollen joined Fluff, the two of them rooting around the table for snacks.

Alix’s jaw dropped.

Adrien went next, then Alya and Nino took their Miraculouses off to set them where Alix could see them. In a matter of seconds, there were five Miraculouses on the table and five kwamis joining in the dinner.

“You’re all superheroes?!” Alix squealed. “This is amazing! Do I get a Miraculous?”

The rest of them laughed at that, and Marinette answered, “Maybe, once you’re fully recovered. We’re still figuring some things out. But since we know you were meant to be the future holder of the Rabbit Miraculous, and you already figured out Nathaniel, we decided it was safe to trust you with our identities. It’s going to be difficult enough keeping them from Nathalie and Geneviève. Keeping them from you, too, would have been more trouble than it’s worth.”

“This is so awesome!” Alix frowned suddenly. “Wait, how do _you_ know I was supposed to get the Rabbit Miraculous? And isn’t Chloe Queen Bee? Why do you have hers?”

They’d already talked about this amongst themselves, so Marinette explained about everything that had happened. About how she and Adrien used to be Ladybug and Cat Noir. About the replacements and Nathaniel’s trip to the future. About how Marinette and Adrien were going to use the other Miraculouses but not get involved in fighting if they could help it. And, because the rest of the team had already approved, she went ahead and told Alix about the identities of the rest of the team.

By the end of it, Alix was wearing a smile so big, it almost split her face in two. “This is the coolest thing ever! I knew I had the best friends in the world! And I’m gonna work extra hard at building my strength back up so I can get my own Miraculous and join the team!”

Alya patted her shoulder, “That’s our girl.”

“I can’t wait,” Nathaniel said softly.

Alix clenched her fist. “I just can’t believe Kim got a Miraculous before me.”

“We don’t have to tell you how big of a secret this is, right?” Marinette asked.

“Nope.” Alix mimed zipping her lips. “I won’t tell a soul. Not even if they torture me.”

Marinette paled. Adrien took her hand under the table and hurried to say, “No one’s going to torture you. Even though Hawk Moth found out about Marinette and me, we think we’ve made it clear that we’ve been fully replaced, so he shouldn’t know that we have new Miraculouses, which means there’s no reason for him to come after us or any of the people we know.”

They put their Miraculouses away (or on), but the kwamis stayed on the table. They all introduced themselves to Alix, and she was delighted with all of them.

“The kwamis will have to stay hidden most of the time,” Marinette said, “though they can come out when we’re in our bedrooms, since Nathalie and Geneviève shouldn’t go in there. Or anywhere else there’s a closed door and they have time to react if someone comes in. But they’ll have to be careful. I wish it didn’t have to be that way, but even though I trust Nathalie and Geneviève, I don’t know either of them enough to trust them with something this big. It’s not even totally a matter of trust, since even my own parents don’t know.”

They all agreed with her on that. It would have been nice for their kwamis to have the same freedom and comfort in the house that they did, but lines of secrecy had to be drawn somewhere.

“To be fair,” Adrien said, “I’ve known Nathalie for a long time, and I do trust her, but I wouldn’t trust her with this either.” He didn’t say that he would be even less likely to trust his father with this secret. It felt like a betrayal, but the thought of his father finding out about his Miraculous made him extremely tense, even if he couldn’t say exactly why.

#

Silence in Gabriel’s atelier had never been an unpleasant thing. For some reason, now, it was.

As soon as Nathalie finished with her work, she would gather her things and go to her new home for the night. She’d fully moved out of her own apartment, putting in storage anything that wouldn’t fit in the room she’d been allotted in Adrien’s house. When her child was born, he would live in the nursery with the other children. Nathalie would still be Gabriel’s assistant, but she would spend less of her time here in the mansion. That was for the best. Things had grown increasingly tense between her and Gabriel over the past nine months, not that either of them had openly acknowledged that fact in any way.

When she turned off her computer and stood up, Gabriel finally spoke.

“Adrien’s friends, Nino and Alya—they’re Carapace and Rena Rouge.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw her turn to look at him. “Are you sure?”

He didn’t look up from his workstation. “Positive.”

“I see. What do you plan to do about it?”

“Nothing, for the moment. If they happen to get careless and you see a chance to take their Miraculouses when you’re sure it won’t be noticed, you may do so, but only if you can get both at once. Otherwise, do nothing. Give no indication you know anything. The timing must be right this time. I can’t afford to let them slip through my grasp as I did with the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses.”

“I understand.” Nathalie picked up her bag and moved around her desk toward the door. She moved awkwardly, though she did her best to maintain as much dignity as she could. Not that real dignity was even possible when she was carrying a child like she was. His child. And she’d never said a single word about the embarrassment, inconvenience, and physical pain he’d put her through because of it.

“Nathalie.”

His voice broke the silence that had once again fallen, stopping her in her tracks.

He met her eyes. “Why?”

“Why what, Gabriel?”

He wasn’t sure why he continued. “Mayura. Catalyst. Why do you help me? Why do you bear the indignity of my child with such fortitude?”

She didn’t look away from him, so even from across the room, he saw her eyes tighten with sadness. And then she smiled—a very small smile. “Is that where Adrien gets it from?”

Gabriel frowned. “Where he gets what?”

“You know why, Gabriel.”

More silence stretched out, but neither of them took their eyes from the other. Finally, Gabriel said, “I can’t love you, Nathalie. You know that.”

“I know.”

“I _will_ revive my wife.”

“I truly hope so.”

“But _why_?”

“I want you to be happy, Gabriel, even if I’m not. That’s what love is.” When he didn’t say anything else, she went on her way.

Alone, Gabriel clenched his teeth in frustration. Nathalie was a good woman. A very small part of him wished he could return her feelings, if only for her sake. She deserved so much better than everything he’d burdened her with.

#

After dinner, the boys cleaned up while the girls went upstairs to feed the babies (or pump, in Marinette’s case). Nathalie returned but went straight to her room after greeting the boys in the kitchen, saying she was tired. Considering she’d had a busy day of organizing a move despite being so pregnant she was about to pop, she certainly had a right to be tired.

Once they finished in the kitchen, Nathaniel went upstairs to see if he could help with the babies, and Nino and Adrien picked out a movie and got it set up. The sun had set a while ago, but it was Saturday, and they were still in a celebratory mood. The night still felt kind of like an elaborate sleepover, so a movie was an obvious next step. Adrien really hoped movie nights would become a regular, weekly thing. Maybe even more often, though they would need to make sure none of them got behind on their school work. And, now that Louis was here and they were in the house, he was going to have to take on more and more of his modeling work, fencing, and extra studies, getting back up to what he used to do. He’d be lucky to have time for one movie night a week, but at least now he’d never again have to ask his father’s permission to hang out with his friends.

Adrien and Nino were chatting on the couch when Marinette and Alya came back downstairs. The girls joined them, and maybe it was the warmth and coziness of the room or the fatigue from the day catching up with them, but they ended up all cuddled together in a lump by the time Nathaniel came downstairs.

He froze when he spotted them. “What’s going on?”

“Gonna watch a movie,” Alya answered.

“Okay,” Nathaniel said, eyeing them uncertainly. “Sounds good.” He came over and sat in one of the arm chairs.

“Hey!” Nino barked, and Nathaniel jumped. “Get over here.” Nino put his arm out as if he expected Nathaniel to curl up under it like a baby duck.

“Why?”

“Because we cuddle in this family, son!”

Adrien stifled a laugh, and Marinette and Alya giggled, but Nino stared at Nathaniel, waiting.

For several seconds, Nathaniel just looked at all of them, possibly trying to decide how serious Nino was. Finally, he gave up and joined them on the couch. Nino grabbed him around the shoulders and pulled him in tight.

“You guys are weird,” Nathaniel said, pretending to be annoyed, but there was a smile in his voice.

Adrien hummed in agreement. “You’re one of us, though, so you’d better get used to it.”

Alix came in a minute later, took a good look at all of them, then rolled her eyes and sat against Nathaniel with her legs curled up. “Dorks.”

Adrien leaned far enough over to see the blush—and the smile—on Nathaniel’s face. Then Adrien pulled Marinette in a little tighter against his chest, not caring that his arm was squeezed between her and Alya, and used his free hand to press ‘play’ on the remote.


	106. Chapter 106

When Adrien’s alarm went off on Monday morning, he grabbed his phone and jumped out of bed. His life had taken some extremely strange turns lately, but this latest development was one he was already in love with. Having his own house, living with the girl he loved and their son and their friends, being constantly surrounded by love and companionship . . . it was everything his life for the year after his mom had disappeared hadn’t been. And it was absolutely amazing. Better yet, they were only beginning to get settled into it.

Yesterday had been so much fun. There’d been some shopping trips to pick up some new things, some hanging out with the babies at home while Geneviève had time to herself, and an hours-long video game session. Plus some time spent in their shared study room to get all their homework done. Now that they had a group, Adrien had even gone online and ordered a bunch of tabletop games for them to play. Maybe they’d even try D&D or something like that! He’d always wanted to try a role-playing game, but those couldn’t be played alone. True, his time was still going to be limited, but he had more control over it than ever before, and time he used to spend alone (eating or studying, for example), he could spend with others.

So he’d slept like a log in his comfy new bed, and he greeted the new day with eager expectation.

Unlike Plagg, who usually whined about getting up, Orikko was already wide-awake. He didn’t even complain about being hungry, but that was probably because they had a mini-fridge and small cupboard in the room for kwami snacks (and people snacks).

“Morning, Orikko,” Adrien told the kwami.

“Good morning, Adrien,” Orikko replied. “The sun rose an hour ago, and the weather is pleasant.” Orikko gave him a sunrise and weather update every morning, and Adrien didn’t have the heart to tell him he could just check an app on his phone if he wanted that information.

Adrien made sure his alarm was set for the next morning, then dropped it on the bed and threw open the curtains of the window nearest his bed.

An annoyed groan came from elsewhere in the room, and Nino rolled over and pulled his blanket over his head. Nathaniel continued sleeping without even stirring.

Adrien glanced at Wayzz. “Nino’s not a morning person, is he?”

“It takes Nino a while to become his usual self in the morning,” the turtle kwami said kindly. “I’ve tried recommending a nice cup of tea, but he has not shown an interest.”

Fluff bounced erratically toward them on the air before coming to float upside-down between the other two kwamis. “Mornings are upside-down evenings. Waking is falling asleep backwards.”

Orikko gave her a long-suffering look and let out a small sigh.

Adrien grinned. Kwamis were all so cute, and it was really fun to see them interacting. He could tell they liked it, too, even when they pretended to be annoyed with each other. But seeing them did make him miss Plagg. He just had to hope that soon Plagg would be able to join the rest of them here.

The good thing about being the earliest riser was that he got the bathroom all to himself without fighting for it. He had plenty of time to shower before going back to the bedroom to change. When he tried to go back into the bathroom to do his hair and brush his teeth, Nino was in there showering. That was one thing he did have to get used to: not always having access to his own bathroom. And dealing with other people’s stuff in the bathroom, too. But he’d gotten used to that sort of thing to some extent during his months staying at Marinette’s, so it wasn’t a huge adjustment.

Deciding to come back to finish getting ready later, he went downstairs to the kitchen. He’d learned yesterday not to try going to the nursery to see Louis first thing in the morning, as one of the girls was likely to be in there nursing or pumping. Luckily, he’d learned this by Alya telling him rather than by walking in on something awkward.

When he entered the kitchen, he found Nathalie sitting at the dining table, drinking a hot beverage and reading her tablet.

“Good morning, Nathalie,” Adrien said with a smile.

“Good morning, Adrien. You’re the first one down.” She sounded pleased by that. “Would you like to see your schedule for the day?”

“Sure,” he said, curious. As far as he knew, it was just school, but he wasn’t surprised to find that he’d been scheduled for a Chinese lesson in the afternoon, as well as a fitting. He knew he didn’t have any conflicts, since he’d made sure to tell Marinette and everyone else to let Nathalie know if he was needed for something, since she was the one keeping his schedule. “That looks fine.”

If everyone else was only just getting up, it made sense for him to start breakfast. After living at Marinette’s, breakfast was one meal he’d learned the most basics about how to cook, and someone had to do it. He wasn’t sure if eggs would trigger any nausea for Nathalie at this point, so he played it safe and started a big batch of oatmeal from scratch. It would go well with the fruit they had.

Footsteps on the stairs signaled the second arrival of the morning. Adrien wasn’t surprised to see it was Alya. “Morning,” she said, not exactly chipper but at least she seemed fully awake. “Whatcha making?”

“Have a look.”

Alya came to the stove and peered into the pot. “Looks good.” She took out a clean spoon to taste it. “It could use a few things. You mind?”

Adrien stepped aside. “Not at all. Can you finish that while I run a quick errand?”

“Sure thing.”

Adrien didn’t bother grabbing his coat or locking the front door behind him. He wasn’t going very far. The morning was a bit crisp, but in a refreshing way that was nice as he jogged to the bakery. There was a crowd, but Sabine spotted him as soon as he came in, thanks to the tall stool she was sitting on.

“Adrien! Good morning, dear!”

Her greeting caused some of the customers to turn to him, and a few took pictures. He ignored them. “Good morning, Sabine. Just getting some things for breakfast for everyone.”

“Take whatever you’d like,” Sabine told him. “You know there’s no charge for family.”

His cheeks warmed with pleasure at hearing her call him ‘family’. She and Tom had been doing that for a while now, but it still felt wonderful. By now, he knew not to argue with her, so he thanked her and grabbed a box full of croissants and such, then jogged back to the house.

Everyone else besides the babies and Geneviève was downstairs and sitting at the table. They’d already served themselves bowls of oatmeal and grabbed some fruit, but their eyes lit up when Adrien set down the box of pastries.

“Thank you, Adrien!” Marinette threw her arms around him and kissed his cheek before diving for the box.

“You’re welcome, Milady.” He got his own breakfast and sat next to her.

They all ate and talked together until Nathalie said, “You might want to head to school now.”

Adrien checked the time. “You’re right!” He ran upstairs to brush his teeth and do his hair real quick, then grabbed his school bag and went to the nursery. The other guys were already there, and together they got the babies into their baby slings and got all the baby bag stuff. Adrien checked the small fridge and grabbed the bottles labeled _Agreste_.

When they got downstairs, Alix asked Nathaniel, “You sure you don’t want me to take one of them?”

“No, it’s fine. They’re still small enough, it’s no problem. Besides, I . . . ” Nathaniel’s expression had been suddenly tentative, but as he trailed off, his face grew red and he looked away from her. “ . . . could use your help with the bag.” He handed her the baby bag and didn’t look at her as she slung it over her shoulder.

Adrien smirked. As they all walked to school, he came up beside Nathaniel and said quietly, “You were going to say something about hearing that babies make you hotter, right?”

Nathaniel flushed and darted a look toward where the girls were walking a bit in front of them. “Maybe,” he muttered.

Adrien laughed. “Better leave lines like that to the pros.”

“Didn’t Ladybug shoot you down every time you tried those lines?” Nathaniel pointed out.

“Well, um . . . that _might_ be true. But it only proves my point. Lines don’t work. If she’s gonna fall for you, she’s gonna fall for _you_. So just keep being yourself.”

They kept walking as Nathaniel thought about that. Finally, he smiled softly. “Yeah, I know. And it’s not like I’m in a rush.”

A burst of curiosity made Adrien’s eyes narrow, and he leaned even closer. “Say, you didn’t happen to learn anything about your _own_ future while you were out there, did you?”

Nathaniel’s eyes were glued to the sidewalk in front of him, but his mouth curled into a more impish type of smile. “Maybe. Not that I can talk about it.”

Adrien laughed and patted Nathaniel on the shoulder. “Playing the long game, then?”

“I guess I am.”

#

As soon as they entered the school courtyard, Alix was surrounded by friends and welcomed with cheers and hugs. Kim even scooped her up and swung her around in his excitement, until she winced in pain.

He put her down instantly. “Sorry!”

“You should be,” Alix told him. “You’re on thin ice already, buddy.”

Poor Kim actually looked a little hurt. “Me? What did I do?”

Marinette tugged on his sleeve to get him to bend down, then whispered in his ear, “She’s annoyed you got a Miraculous before her.”

He straightened, grinning. “Ohhh. Well, I can’t help being more awesome than you, Alix.”

Adrien said, “More like in the right place at the right time.”

Alix pointed a finger at Kim. “Just wait ’til I’m fully recovered, Curious George. Then we’ll see.”

“Looking forward to it.”

Marinette stepped between them. “Alix, you might want to check out the daycare before class.” And as much as they were doing a decent job of hiding what they were really talking about, they _were_ surrounded by other people who didn’t know about the superhero thing, and it was only a matter of time before one of them said something not oblique enough.

Alix went to the daycare room with the boys, and the rest of the group dispersed.

The classroom was strewn with decorations and balloons for Alix’s welcome back party. There were even snacks, which Miss Bustier let them eat during class. There were plans to order pizza at lunch and have the real party then. Everyone was in a good mood and happy to have Alix back. Everyone except Chloe, anyway.

“I don’t get what the fuss is about,” she said between classes as a few more people from school came in to welcome Alix back. She was talking to Sabrina, but she was talking loudly enough that Marinette heard her easily. “Yeah, she had a scare, but it worked out. Then she got to lounge around in the hospital for weeks while _some_ of us still had to deal with these stupid pregnancies.”

Marinette gritted her teeth, but she knew that Chloe was only being insensitive because she was still pregnant and still dealing with all the physical and hormonal things that meant. Her impatience was something that Marinette couldn’t really hold against her. Even Alix seemed to realize this, as she didn’t so much as give Chloe a dirty look for her comments.

So everyone ignored Chloe being Chloe and got on with the day. Marinette had already put Chloe from her mind entirely when her phone buzzed with a text.

They were in the middle of class again, but Miss Bustier had her back turned, writing on the board, so Marinette hid her phone under her desk and looked at the screen.

It was from Pierre.

_Sorry to bother you, Marinette._

As soon as she read that one, a new text appeared.

_I know we haven’t talked in a while, and I don’t know if you still want to help me, but . . ._

Marinette’s gut twisted with guilt. It had been a long time since she’d talked to Pierre, and she didn’t know if Adrien was still in contact with him. With having Louis, finding out that Adrien was Cat Noir, and everything that had happened since, she hadn’t even _thought_ of Pierre in ages. Not since she’d talked Chloe into being proud of her child after her parents had found out that Pierre was the father. Ever since then, Chloe had been pretty much back to her usual self, so Marinette had forgotten that there was someone else still very much in turmoil about the whole situation.

Her phone kept buzzing.

_It’s been 40 weeks._

_I haven’t heard from Miss Bourgeois._

_Can you tell me if she’s okay?_

With a surge of annoyance, anger, and exasperation, Marinette looked over at Chloe, who was watching Miss Bustier with a bored expression, taking notes with one hand while the other rested on her very large belly. What on earth went on in that girl’s head? Sure, maybe Pierre wasn’t a boy she already loved, but what girl wanted to have a baby on her own when the father was a nice guy who was desperate to help?

Marinette texted back, _She seems fine. Hasn’t had the baby yet._ When Pierre didn’t respond right away, Marinette asked, _Has she really not talked to you at all?_

_Not a word_ , Pierre answered.

_I don’t even have her number._

_I must have done something to make her hate me._

Marinette sighed softly and texted, _Hating people is Chloe’s default setting._ Did Chloe really still think this situation was Pierre’s fault? She wasn’t that stupid. Most likely, she only saw Pierre as a reminder of something awful and not as an actual person. She was being stubborn.

_I just wish she would talk to me_ , Pierre texted.

_Just once._

_At least so I could tell her how I feel._

Marinette’s mouth pursed in determination, and she tapped her phone screen so hard it made audible thumps. _I’ll make it happen_ , she promised. One conversation to plead his case. Pierre deserved that much.


	107. Chapter 107

Between afternoon classes, Adrien was pulled by Marinette into a semi-private corner of the courtyard. “Sneaking kisses, Milady?” Without waiting for an answer, he leaned in to try to kiss her, but she pushed him away with a finger on the tip of his nose.

“Not now, Kitty.”

“So later, then?”

She blushed. “I need you to be serious. It’s about Pierre.”

His playful mood drained away. When had he lasted texted the other boy? Adrien had been checking in off and on for a while, but then Louis had come, and everything else had happened, and Adrien had just sort of . . . forgotten. “He contacted you?”

She nodded. “Chloe still hasn’t talked to him.”

Adrien sighed and slumped back against the wall. “I should have been checking in with her. I’d really hoped she’d get in touch with him after she accepted her baby.”

“Me, too, but you know how Chloe is. We should have expected she wouldn’t.”

“I’ll talk to her,” he said wearily. Conversations with Chloe were often tiring.

“That’s not enough,” Marinette said. “We’ve tried convincing her to talk to him, and it hasn’t worked. Her baby’s almost here. At this rate, I doubt she’ll even name a father on the birth certificate. I think we need to force her to talk to him.”

Adrien frowned. “Force her how?”

“You get her to come to the mansion after school. Then we’ll have Pierre meet us there, too. Your old room will give them plenty of privacy to talk.”

“I’m not sure, Marinette. I don’t like the idea of tricking her into it.”

“We _have_ to trick her! It’s the only way she’ll show up. If we don’t do something, she’ll _never_ talk to him.”

“That’s probably true . . . ”

“Don’t you think Pierre has a right to at least tell her how he feels? Don’t you think it’s wrong for her to keep his child from him without even giving him a chance to try to make it right?”

Adrien chewed his lip. He definitely felt for Pierre. Now that Adrien had a son, he couldn’t imagine how hurtful it would be to be forced out of his son’s life when he’d done nothing wrong. And if Pierre loved Chloe even a fraction as much as Adrien loved Marinette, the thought of holding that in and never being able to properly tell her—even knowing she’d reject him—was physically painful. But Chloe was his friend, and he didn’t want to knowingly upset her. She wouldn’t like this plan; that was for sure. Then again, people as stubborn as Chloe did sometimes need tough love because they didn’t do anything uncomfortable on their own, even if it was necessary for their own good.

With his own thoughts and feelings on the matter divided, Adrien deferred to Marinette. When she had that Ladybug resolve in her eyes, it was hard to do anything else. “All right. I’ll invite her over.”

She took his hand and squeezed it. “This is gonna work, Adrien. Even if she rejects him, at least he’ll get the chance to say his piece.”

When Adrien sent a text to Chloe, asking her to come to the mansion after school, she accepted without any apparent suspicion. After school, Adrien asked Alya and Nino to take Louis home for them.

“No sweat, dude,” Nino answered.

Alya was a little more curious. “What’s up?”

They were in the daycare room, so Adrien glanced around to see who else was nearby. Miss Bustier was there, picking up her son, Destin, and there were a few other students. Nathaniel had just finished bundling up the twins. Adrien caught his eye and nodded him over. Adrien huddled over Louis’s crib with Nathaniel, Alya, and Nino, and said very quietly, “Marinette and I are trying to set up a meeting at the mansion between Chloe and the father of her baby. And she doesn’t know we’re doing it.”

Nino winced slightly. Alya said, “Oof.”

“What’s the problem?” Nathaniel asked.

“She hasn’t spoken to him—at all—since it happened,” Adrien said.

Nathaniel frowned slightly in thought. “Who is he?”

“A waiter at her hotel. Or he was, until her parents found out. He’s a nice guy, and he’s been in love with her for a while. But she won’t speak to him. Marinette thinks she needs to.”

Nathaniel nodded. “Marinette’s probably right.”

There was a deliberate sort of blankness in Nathaniel’s expression when he said that which made Adrien want to ask if Nathaniel knew anything the rest of them didn’t. But he resisted the urge to tempt Nathaniel to break the rules and pushed his curiosity aside. “But this is Chloe, and we know how she is.”

Alya nodded. “When she’s in a bad mood, people get akumatized.”

“Yeah, I’m a little worried about that,” Adrien admitted. “So you guys should be on alert, and maybe warn the others, too. Marinette and I will be there when they meet, so if something happens, one of us will contact you right away.”

The three of them nodded.

“In that case,” said Nino, “we’d better get these babies home so we can answer if you need us.”

Once Louis was passed off and the team was warned, Adrien and Marinette hurried to the mansion. Pierre was waiting for them outside. He looked nervous.

“Pierre.” Adrien grasped his hand in a firm shake, which visibly helped to calm Pierre’s nerves. “It’s good to see you again. I’m sorry we lost touch.”

Pierre shook his head. “No, it’s fine! You’re busy and famous, and I’m not anyone. I don’t blame you.”

“You _are_ someone,” Marinette told him firmly. “You don’t have to be famous to be someone.”

Pierre ran a hand through his blond hair. “Is Miss Bourgeois coming?”

Adrien nodded. “She is. But I didn’t tell her why. So, you’re kinda going to be a surprise.”

Pierre paled at that. “Maybe we shouldn’t do this. You’re her friends. I don’t want her mad at you because of me.”

“She’ll forgive me,” Adrien said. Maybe not right away, but she would. Of that, at least, he was sure.

“We don’t have time to argue,” said Marinette. “Let’s get inside.”

Adrien entered the code for the gate, and they went in. When he opened the main door, he found a surprised Nathalie in the foyer.

“Adrien?” she asked, even more surprised when Pierre came in behind him and Marinette.

Well, it wasn’t as if they could have ever hidden what was happening, if his father was home. “Hi, Nathalie. This is Pierre. He’s, uh—”

“The father of Chloe Bourgeois’s baby. Yes, I know.”

Adrien wasn’t all that surprised. Gabriel was friends with Chloe’s dad, so even if Pierre’s identity hadn’t been made public, Mr. Bourgeois had probably complained about the situation to Gabriel. “He’s a good guy, Nathalie, and Chloe’s refused to speak with him at all. He just wants to talk to her.”

Nathalie raised an eyebrow. “If she’s refused up until now, what made her agree?”

“We, uh, didn’t tell her.” Adrien was ashamed to admit it. Even if it was ultimately for her own good, he _was_ going behind his friend’s back.

But there was no judgment on Nathalie’s face. “I see. You’ll be using your old room?”

“If that’s okay, yes. We wanted somewhere they could have some privacy to talk.”

“I’ll inform your father that you’re here with friends on a delicate matter.”

“Thank you, Nathalie.” If Chloe started shouting, it made sense to warn Gabriel about it beforehand. Hopefully he’d let it pass instead of demanding silence.

After Nathalie went into the atelier, Marinette led Pierre up to Adrien’s old room. They’d already decided that Marinette would hide with Pierre in the bathroom until the right moment.

Chloe arrived shortly thereafter, barging in with her butler and Sabrina close behind. “Adrikins! I’m here! Aren’t you happy to see me?” Normally, she’d have hugged him or something, but she kept her distance, apparently still in her _repulsed-by-men_ phase, but she had come to terms with it. Honestly, Adrien wasn’t looking forward to her getting over it. He’d never really realized how clingy Chloe was until she’d stopped doing it.

“Yes, Chloe. Thank you for coming. Could we talk in my old room?” He darted a glance to the other two. “Alone?”

“But of course, sir,” the butler said before Chloe could answer. There was something understanding in the butler’s eyes. He was Pierre’s uncle; maybe Pierre had been in communication with him. Adrien didn’t really know the man—didn’t even know his name other than that it was Jean-something—but he had to imagine that the man hoped for a positive outcome for both Chloe’s sake and Pierre’s. It was too bad Chloe didn’t have more respect for her employees, or _he_ might have been able to fix things between them without Adrien and Marinette needing to get involved. As it was, all he could do was lend his silent support and keep Sabrina from following Chloe up the stairs.

When Adrien and Chloe reached his old bedroom, Adrien shut the door while she sank down onto the end of the bed and crossed her legs. “So, what did you need to talk about, Adrikins? Is Dupain-Cheng being a pain? You know, you don’t _have_ to marry her just because you have a kid together.”

Adrien scowled at her. “This isn’t about Marinette, Chloe. And I know you’re still going through a lot emotionally because of your pregnancy, so I’ll let that comment slide, but I don’t want to hear you talking bad about the girl I love. Okay?”

Chloe met his eyes and saw how serious he was. She didn’t answer, but she didn’t argue, either.

Adrien sighed. “I didn’t ask you here because _I’m_ the one who wants to talk to you.” He raised his voice and called toward the bathroom, “Marinette!”

Chloe’s surprised face shot toward the bathroom door as it opened. Marinette was the first to come out, but she quickly moved out of the way as Pierre emerged. “What?!” Chloe shrieked. She tried to jump to her feet, but her pregnancy prevented her from moving very quickly, so it was more of an awkward heave to her feet.

Pierre stayed a good twelve feet away from her and held up his hands. “Miss Bourgeois, please—”

Chloe spun on Adrien. “Traitor!”

“Chloe, please calm down,” Adrien said. “He’s the father of your child. He deserves a chance to at least _speak_ to you.”

With a loud _Hmph!_ she moved toward the door. Adrien stood in front of it as Marinette took up the same position in front of the other door. “Let me out, Adrien,” Chloe hissed. “Or I’ll scream.”

“I don’t think anyone will come to help you if you do,” Adrien told her gently. He was pretty sure the butler would hold Sabrina back, and if Nathalie or his father heard her, they would know what was happening and would likely not want to get involved. And thanks to the size of the mansion and the closed windows, her voice was unlikely to carry farther than his father’s property.

Chloe clenched her fists. “My butler—”

“Is Pierre’s uncle,” Adrien said.

Her eyes widened, and her jaw fell.

Adrien shook his head. “Chloe, do you even talk to your staff?”

Chloe glared at him, her face growing very red.

“We’re not letting you out until you talk to him, Chloe,” Adrien said.

Marinette corrected him. “We’re not letting you out until you _listen_ to him.”

Through clenched teeth, Chloe growled, “Jean-Gaston is _so_ fired.”

“No, don’t!” Pierre took several steps closer, his hand out imploringly. “He didn’t have anything to do with this, Miss Bourgeois. He’s loyal to you. He wouldn’t even tell me much when I asked about you. That’s why I had to ask Adrien and Marinette for help.”

She whipped around to shout at him. “Who gave you permission to do that?!”

Adrien saw Marinette’s anger rise from across the room, but he gave her a small shake of his head, hoping she’d leave these two alone now that they were talking. If ‘shouting’ could be considered ‘talking’.

The hand that Pierre held out to Chloe was shaking. “Miss Bourgeois, please! I only want to help!”

“Help?!” Chloe cried. “You _helped_ me enough already!” She stalked toward him, menacing despite her pregnancy waddle. Menacing enough that Pierre staggered back with each step she took toward him. “If _you_ hadn’t been there, _this_ wouldn’t have happened! I wouldn’t feel like a beached whale! I wouldn’t have gone through months of anger and depression and the mother lode of all mood swings! I wouldn’t have spent nights bawling my eyes out in bed! My parents wouldn’t have looked at me like I was a problem they had to fix!” She was chasing him backward around the room now. If there’d still been more furniture, Pierre would have likely tripped over something already. But she kept going at him, not giving him a moment to speak. “If _you_ hadn’t been there—you worthless, useless little _nobody_ —my life would be perfect!”

Pierre tripped over his own feet and landed hard on the floor. Chloe stood over him, seething and catching her breath, completely immune to the tears that were now streaming down Pierre’s face.

Adrien took a step toward them. Maybe he would have to gag her in order to get her to actually listen to the guy. “Chlo—” Adrien froze as he caught sight of a dark shape in the air.

“Akuma!” Marinette shouted as the black and purple butterfly fluttered down toward Pierre.

“Get Chloe out of here!” Adrien called out, dashing toward Pierre.

Chloe was moving from angry to confused, but not fast enough to act. As Adrien tried to snatch the akuma out of the air with his bare hands, Marinette grabbed Chloe’s wrist and pulled her toward the door. Adrien’s hand caught only empty air—which was probably just as well, since he didn’t know if akumas could even be caught or what it might do to him—and he spared half a second to meet Marinette’s eyes.

And then the akuma found its mark, sinking into the watch on Pierre’s wrist. The outline of a purple butterfly appeared over Pierre’s face, and his tears instantly dried.

“Take her and go!” Adrien shouted at Marinette. “I’ll keep him busy.” _Until you or another hero gets here_ , he didn’t say. They hadn’t talked about this contingency, but he knew she would understand.

From the flash of worry and fear on her face, he could see she wanted to argue with him, but she didn’t. She didn’t have the Ladybug Miraculous to purify the akuma herself, and he couldn’t destroy it with his Cataclysm. And even though using the Miraculouses that they did have was an option, it would blow their cover again, now that Hawk Moth had made a connection to Pierre. And that would put everyone they knew in danger. It had to be avoided if at all possible. Which meant that Adrien would have to keep a supervillain busy _without_ using a Miraculous.

They both knew that was how it had to be, because he sure wasn’t going to let _her_ fight it while _he_ took Chloe to safety. When the door closed behind the escaping girls and Adrien turned to face the villain who was rising from the ground in Pierre’s place, Adrien smiled. His partner trusted him. He wouldn’t let her down.


	108. Chapter 108

As soon as the akuma made contact, the intensity of the pain that Hawk Moth sensed from the young man tripled. Such anguish. Such regret. Such a burning desire to make things right. “Timejumper,” Hawk Moth said, reaching out to the young man from the safety of his lair. “The woman you love is in pain, and all you want to do is fix things for her. I can give you the power to do just that. All I ask in return is that you get me the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses.”

“I’ll do anything for her, Hawk Moth.”

“Excellent.” Hawk Moth used his power to transform Pierre into Timejumper. He’d read about the Rabbit Miraculous in the spell book, and he’d seen the female hero when Timetagger had come from the future and made contact with him. And now there was a young, male rabbit hero. It had given him an idea—one that had worked before. Perhaps it would again.

Through his connection to Timejumper, Hawk Moth saw that Chloe and Marinette had made it out of the room, but Adrien had stayed to fight.

“Careful, Timejumper,” Hawk Moth said. “If you hurt him, I won’t be happy.”

Timejumper twirled his umbrella in his hands. Unlike the tame one the actual rabbit hero used, this one had spikes at the tip and at the end of every rib.

Adrien took up a fighting stance and looked directly into Timejumper’s eyes. “I know you’re listening, Hawk Moth. I may not have my Miraculous anymore, but I won’t stand by and let you hurt people. Especially not my friends.”

Grinning, Hawk Moth took enough control of Timejumper to speak through the villain’s mouth. “Even when you had it, you weren’t a match for me. What makes you think you can beat me when you’re powerless?”

“Who said I planned to beat you?” Adrien darted back, well out of Timejumper’s reach, and pulled out his phone.

Hawk Moth loosened his control enough to allow Timejumper the freedom to fight. “Drive him from the room or subdue him,” Hawk Moth ordered. “But _do not_ hurt him or use your powers on him.”

Timejumper lunged toward Adrien, but Adrien darted back, putting distance between them. Instead of being sensible and running from the supervillain, Adrien taunted him, keeping Timejumper’s attention while staying out of his reach. Even without his powers, Adrien was impressively agile and quick on his feet. Normally, Hawk Moth would have been impressed. Right now, it was irritating. If Adrien would just go away, Hawk Moth could give Timejumper instructions and enact his plan.

If his plan worked—and he was certain it would—then anything that happened to Adrien now wouldn’t matter anyway. Even knowing that, though, Hawk Moth couldn’t bring himself to tell Timejumper to use his full strength against Adrien.

Surely, his irrational concern for Adrien’s safety was the only reason he didn’t do so. Although his plan had been spontaneous, Hawk Moth knew it was his best chance, and he couldn’t back down from it. No matter the cost.

#

Marinette didn’t stop running with Chloe until she pushed the pregnant girl into a café a block away from the mansion. “Stay here!” When Chloe started complaining at her, Marinette turned to Sabrina and the butler. “Keep her here, okay? I don’t know if Pierre is gonna try to come after her.”

The two of them nodded and each took one of Chloe’s arms, firmly helping her into a chair.

By now, the rest of the people in the café were watching them, some with frowns of concern on their faces. “Someone got akumatized a block away from here,” Marinette told them. “So you should all stay inside.”

One lady yelped and dropped her coffee cup, a couple men grumbled, and a kid whooped with excitement, but everyone in Paris was used to this by now, so no one really freaked out. But they all did become far more alert.

“I have to go,” she told Chloe and the others. “I’m still worried about Nathalie.” They didn’t try to stop her as she ran back out onto the street. Marinette _was_ worried about Nathalie—she hadn’t seen either her or Gabriel when she’d popped into the atelier on the way out—but she couldn’t actually spare the time to go looking for her right now. She just had to hope that the woman had someplace safe to hide, or maybe she and Gabriel had left the mansion entirely before Pierre got akumatized. Either way, Marinette had other things to do. Like make sure Adrien didn’t get himself killed.

She ducked into an alley, put the Bee Miraculous in her hair, and said, “Pollen, buzz on!” In a yellow flash, she transformed into Honey Bee and leapt to the rooftops. It only took her seconds to find a perch on a rooftop across from Adrien’s window. She popped the earpiece out of her spinning top and put it in, then opened the top so she could use it as a telescope.

“Ladybird! Black Tom! Anyone! Report!” She’d texted the whole team on the short run from the mansion to the café, so hopefully they were all on their way.

In the screen of her top, she saw Adrien dodging the villain’s attacks, running and leaping, even using the climbing wall to gain some height. He wasn’t hurt, but without his superpowers, he wouldn’t last long against a supervillain.

Black Tom’s voice came to her ear first. “We’re almost there!”

“Us, too!” answered Rena Rouge.

Honey Bee didn’t waste time asking who they were with; it was almost certainly Ladybird and Carapace. More of the team, if she was lucky. “Adrien’s keeping the supervillain in his old room in the mansion. It’s the room on the south side that’s all windows. It looks like he’s gotten one of them open.”

She had to fight herself from leaping through it to help Adrien, but as long as he was holding his own, she’d stick to the plan. From the corner of her eye, she spotted black and red figures leaping over the rooftops toward them and let out a breath of relief. Ladybird and Black Tom flashed her a quick wave on their way through, but they didn’t pause, immediately launching themselves through the open window to engage the supervillain.

As soon as they had his attention, Adrien ducked out through the door. Honey Bee held her breath until she saw him running across the yard. “Okay, Adrien’s out,” she told the others on the line. “Ladybird and Black Tom are fighting the supervillain in Adrien’s old room.”

“What can we expect?” The question came from Viperion. Good. At least three more heroes were on their way.

Now that Adrien was out and safe, she was able to examine the supervillain more closely on her screen. “He’s . . . _Oh_.”

“What?” asked Rena.

“He’s got a spiked umbrella, and his costume has a hood with rabbit ears pressed back flat against his head. And the costume’s white and blue.”

She heard a sharp inhale, then White Rabbit’s voice. “He’s mimicking my Miraculous?”

“Looks like,” Honey Bee said unhappily. “Hawk Moth’s done that before. He can make people look exactly like existing heroes, but he can also give people the actual power of other Miraculouses.”

“Like he did with Volpina,” said Rena.

“Exactly.” Honey Bee frowned. “Which means his powers probably include some form of time-travel. We’ll have to be very careful.” Movement beside her caught her attention, and she smiled at her partner. “Cocky Boy’s here with me now, so we’ll jump in if we have to.”

Carapace snorted. “I can’t believe he let you pick his new name.”

“He picked mine,” she pointed out. “It was only fair.” And they weren’t meant to be _public_ names, anyway, since the two of them weren’t meant to be known by anyone outside the team.

They didn’t have any more time for banter. Beside her, Cocky Boy knelt beside her and put in his earpiece. His suit was red and orange, the mask covering his whole head except his mouth, with a stiff, red comb on the top like some kind of racing fin. “The villain’s called Timejumper,” he said, confirming their guesses. “He didn’t sound like he was trying to chase after Chloe. More like he was just trying to get me to go away.”

“Ladybird, Black Tom, has he said anything to indicate what his goal is?” Honey Bee asked.

“Not that I can tell,” Black Tom said as Honey Bee saw him leap back from a swipe of Timejumper’s umbrella. “This guy’s really Pierre?”

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that, Black Tom,” she said sternly.

His squeak let her know that he understood his mistake, so she ignored it and went on. “Chloe chewed Pierre out pretty bad. Hawk Moth can use someone’s negative emotions to turn them into someone completely different from who they actually are. He’s turned some of the nicest people I know into cackling supervillains. Don’t underestimate his power. And even if you know or think you know the akumatized person, you can’t hold back once Hawk Moth turns them into a supervillain. Got it?”

Before Black Tom could answer, a portal opened right inside the room and spewed Pegasus and King Monkey out.

“Sorry we’re late!” said Pegasus.

Now that the odds were four-on-one, Honey Bee hoped they might end this soon. She was thinking through a strategy when the tip of Timejumper’s umbrella made contact with King Monkey’s shoulder, and King Monkey disappeared in a flash of blue light.

“Crap!” Honey Bee shouted.

King Monkey’s sudden disappearance made Pegasus freeze just a second too long. Timejumper struck again, and Pegasus disappeared.

“Everyone, hurry!” Honey Bee shouted. “Ladybird, Black Tom, don’t get hit by his umbrella!”

“Yeah, figured that out,” Ladybird said in a strained voice. She’d used her Lucky Charm to create a broom and was using it to parry Timejumper’s attempts to strike her.

The rest of the team finally arrived. Without stopping to confer, Rena Rouge, Carapace, and White Rabbit leapt through the window to join the fight. Viperion landed on the rooftop beside Honey Bee.

White Rabbit had his own umbrella out and had joined Ladybird to help fight Timejumper back, but it was obvious neither of them were the fencer that Adrien was, so it took both of them just to keep Timejumper at bay. The others tried to strike him from behind while he was busy, but he was too quick, somehow managing to dodge or deflect every blow that came at him.

“Should I use my power to find Pegasus and King Monkey?” White Rabbit asked over the earpiece.

“No,” Honey Bee answered. “You can only use it once, and we don’t even know where they went.”

“Somewhere in time,” White Rabbit said. “It has to be, right?”

“Most likely,” she agreed, “but you can only use your Burrow once before you have to recharge and we might need it more later, so don’t use it now. If we can defeat Timejumper, the magic ladybugs will bring the others back.”

Viperion put a hand on her shoulder. “You want me in there or out here?”

It was a hard decision. Keeping Viperion out of harm’s way meant they could rely on his Second Chance more. But this villain was fast and strong, and they probably needed all hands on deck. “I’ll leave it up to you.”

Touching his wrist, he twisted the bracelet and said, “Second Chance.”

Viperion’s expression immediately turned into a scowl of frustration.

“Which attempt is this?” she asked him.

“Thirty-two. Even when I focus only on keeping Ladybird and Black Tom safe, I can’t stop him. I need to go in.”

“Maybe Cocky Boy and I should—”

“No. We’ve tried that. This is the only thing we haven’t tried yet.”

Honey Bee shared a concerned look with Cocky Boy, but at this point, it was Viperion’s call. “Okay.”

Viperion leapt off the rooftop and joined the fight in the mansion.

Honey Bee started strategizing. “The akuma landed on Pierre’s watch. Do you guys see—”

It all happened in an instant. Ladybird cried out, Black Tom yanked her back, Viperion stumbled—and then Timejumper’s umbrella touched Viperion’s arm, and he blinked out in a flash of light.

“Get back!” Honey Bee shouted, but of course it was too late to save Viperion. The rest of the team heeded the order, though, each falling back to a different corner of the room.

For two seconds, there was a lull as each fighter regrouped and Honey Bee waited.

“He’s . . . not coming back,” she said.

Cocky Boy crouched beside her, eyes glued to the fight on the other side of the window. “Either something happened to incapacitate him immediately, or Second Chance doesn’t work when you get time-traveled somewhere else after setting it.”

“This is my fault,” she said. Maybe this was what she got for fobbing off her responsibility as leader. Maybe there was a line between trusting your team and delegating too much responsibility. She stood up and shut her spinning top so she could use it as a weapon. “Time for Honey Bee and Cocky Boy to make their debut.”


	109. Chapter 109

This wasn’t the first time he’d faced off against a supervillain in his bedroom—or what used to be his bedroom—but it was the first time he’d done it while someone else was playing the black cat. It was also his first time using the Rooster Miraculous to fight at all, but luckily the basics were all the same no matter the Miraculous.

The moment he cleared the window, he saw Timejumper reaching to grab Ladybird. Without batting an eye, Cocky Boy used his momentum from the leap into the room to slam into Timejumper, knocking him away from Ladybird.

“Good of you to join us, Cocky Boy,” she said with a smirk of amusement as they turned back to back to search for the villain, who was no longer where Cocky Boy had last seen him.

“Always a pleasure to help a lady,” he responded distractedly.

“Above you!” shouted Carapace.

Cocky Boy and Ladybird looked up to see Timejumper nearly on top of them, leaping with his umbrella pointed straight down toward Ladybird. In the next instant, Carapace was between Ladybird and the villain, taking Timejumper’s strike on his shield. Both Carapace and Timejumper landed on top of Ladybird, smashing her into the floor, and then Rena Rouge swung her flute like a baseball bat at Timejumper’s head.

Timejumper dodge-rolled away and leapt to his feet in time to parry the attack that Black Tom launched with his stick.

“How is he so _fast_?” Carapace asked as Rena helped him to his feet. Even with Honey Bee trying to hit Timejumper from behind with her Venom while Black Tom kept him busy, the villain was managing to avoid them both.

“Quick like a bunny,” Cocky Boy muttered. _Speaking of which . . ._ He looked around and saw White Rabbit hopping down from the upper walkway. That must have been where Timejumper had jumped at them from.

With the fight being seven-on-one (at this point), the heroes really shouldn’t have been losing. But five of them were still fairly new to using their Miraculouses in a fight, three of them being new to the superhero game altogether, with only a few other fights under their belt. And maybe the enclosed space worked against them. But the main problem, Cocky Boy thought, was that Hawk Moth had made Timejumper so dang fast and agile. He darted from hero to hero, landing blows and avoiding attacks before the heroes could really even get their bearings or plan their next moves. They didn’t have the space and time that Honey Bee needed to figure out a plan, and the fact that Viperion had already had to turn things back so many times added another layer of anxiety to an already extremely stressful situation.

Despite overwhelming odds in their favor, it was soon down to five-on-one, with Carapace and Rena Rouge having been knocked through time by Timejumper’s umbrella.

“No!” Ladybird shouted after it happened, reaching toward where they’d been. Black Tom had to yank her back out of Timejumper’s reach. She screamed at the villain, “Where did you send them?!”

“You mean _when_ did I send them?” Timejumper did a spinning jump onto the railing of the upper walkway. “I’m not sure, but you can join them and find out.”

Growling, Ladybird called for another Lucky Charm, grabbed the spotted rotary phone out of the air, and launched herself wildly at Timejumper.

With a laugh, Timejumper leapt down, dodged away from the swipe of White Rabbit’s umbrella, slid under Cocky Boy’s attempt at a tackle, and caught the handset part of the Lucky Charm, swiftly wrapping the cord around the tip of his umbrella, then yanked.

Ladybird didn’t let go fast enough, and the yank jerked her forward, toward the tip of Timejumper’s umbrella.

Honey Bee leapt between them, caught the tip of Timejumper’s umbrella with her stomach, and disappeared in a flash of blue light.

Cocky Boy gaped in horror at the empty air where the girl he loved had just been. Where was she now? _When_ was she now? Was she in danger?

An arm caught him around the waist and pulled him back just as Timejumper’s umbrella came for him. “You’ve got to focus!” White Rabbit hissed into his ear.

He was right. It was just four of them now. They had to defeat Timejumper in order to get the others back. Their friends were counting on them.

In the two seconds it had taken him to get himself together, White Rabbit had shoved Timejumper back with a thrust of his open umbrella and pulled Black Tom and Ladybird back to regroup with them. The two older heroes, pale with shock from the loss of the team leader, looked to Cocky Boy for direction.

“My special ability won’t do any good against this villain,” Cocky Boy said, “and Ladybird, you’ve already been using yours. Have you tried using your Cataclysm yet?”

Black Tom shook his head. “I didn’t want to destroy gra—I mean, I didn’t want to risk getting any of you hurt.”

“Yeah, getting hit with a Cataclysm does suck,” Cocky Boy said, “but it’s not lethal, so I think we need to risk it. There are only three of us left to keep out of your way. The akuma went into Pierre’s watch, so it must be hiding in that pocket watch hanging from Timejumper’s pocket. If you can get that with your Cataclysm, it’s all over.”

Black Tom nodded and held up his hand. “Cataclysm!”

#

Where did these new heroes keep coming from? Did the Guardian have a whole stable of them on standby? Perhaps assuming that Marinette and Adrien had found their own replacements had been a mistake. Still, at least the new ones were kids and not adults, not that it mattered with these particular two. The rooster’s power would do no good here, and the bee’s would only have been needed once anyway—if she could have landed the hit, but Timejumper had taken her out before that had happened.

The new bee definitely wasn’t Chloe Bourgeois—she wasn’t pregnant—so now there were two more identities for Hawk Moth to uncover. But only if his plan failed.

“You’re doing well, Timejumper,” he told his villain. Timejumper was standing back, considering his next move as the heroes huddled together. It was only a matter of seconds before the huddle broke apart and the heroes faced Timejumper with fighting stances, Ladybird spinning her yo-yo, White Rabbit holding his umbrella up like a sword, and Black Tom wielding his power in his hand. The new hero with a ridiculous name and a useless power faced Timejumper with the most determined expression of them all. At least the boy had spirit, not that it would help him.

“What is it you want, Timejumper?” Cocky Boy asked, trying to distract him as Black Tom and Ladybird attacked, but Timejumper was too quick—both in body and in mind—to fall for it.

As he dodged the attack, Timejumper answered, “Chloe’s hurt because of me. I’m going to fix it so she’s not.”

Cocky Boy appeared confused by that answer, but through Timejumper’s eyes, Hawk Moth saw the understanding dawn on White Rabbit’s face. Of course the time-traveling hero would get it.

“Take out the rabbit!” Hawk Moth ordered. If the boy got any more clever, he’d ruin Hawk Moth’s plan before he’d even enacted it.

Timejumper was a very obedient supervillain. He didn’t question Hawk Moth’s order. In the next moment, as White Rabbit began to speak, Timejumper twisted out of the way of Black Tom’s reaching Cataclysm, grabbed the hero by the arm, and redirected the destructive power directly into White Rabbit’s chest.

White Rabbit groaned and crumpled to the floor. He wasn’t saying anything at the moment, but he was still conscious, so he might still warn them. Black Tom cried out in surprise and knocked Timejumper away from him. The three heroes wasted their time going to White Rabbit’s side to check that he was all right.

“Now, while they’re distracted,” Hawk Moth said.

Timejumper took a step toward the heroes.

“Not them!”

Timejumper stopped. “But you want their Miraculouses.”

“I want the Ladybird and Black Cat Miraculouses, yes, but don’t take them from those two.”

Timejumper waited while Hawk Moth explained his plan. “Go back to shortly before the attack that caused your Chloe to get hurt. Tell Adrien and Marinette about Fairy Grandmother.”

“Why them?”

“Because they were Ladybug and Cat Noir.”

Timejumper sucked in a breath.

“Tell them you’re a Rabbit Miraculous user from the future. Warn them about Fairy Grandmother. Help them defeat her. Then use their trust to steal their Miraculouses and bring them to me.”

“I understand, Hawk Moth.”

This was for the best. For Adrien. For Nathalie. For himself. Hawk Moth’s biggest mistake would be undone, and all the pain he’d caused would be gone. Adrien and Marinette would fall in love again and have another child—this time, when they were ready. Everything would be fine. Everything would be better.

Timejumper opened a portal and stepped through, and Hawk Moth’s connection to the villain was severed, leaving him standing alone in his lair.

_This is for the best._

So why did he keep having to repeat it to himself?

#

One second, Ladybird and Black Tom where kneeling with Cocky Boy beside White Rabbit, and the next second, they were gone.

No flash of light. No attack from behind.

Just gone.

Their Miraculouses clattered to the floor.

“No!” White Rabbit shouted as Cocky Boy was still staring in confusion at the fallen Miraculouses.

“What happened?”

White Rabbit raised himself to one elbow, the other hand clutching his chest where the Cataclysm had hit him, then he pointed behind Cocky Boy. “Timejumper,” he grunted.

Cocky Boy turned his head and saw a glowing, white hole in the air. “Where’d he go? Did he run away? What happened to Ladybird and Black Tom?”

A flash of light drew his attention back to White Rabbit—now Nathaniel—who fought to sit up but still had to brace himself with a hand. “Here.” Nathaniel held out his hand and tried to shove his Miraculous at Cocky Boy.

“I don’t understand.” Cocky Boy was feeling very stupid, but he just couldn’t figure out what was going on.

“Follow him!” It was hard for Nathaniel to get the words out through gritted teeth. He shoved the hand holding his Miraculous into Cocky Boy’s chest. “You have to stop him!”

“Why? What—”

“Adrien! Please! Go!” The look on Nathaniel’s face stopped any more questions cold. It was pure, undiluted desperation. His face was contorted in a grimace, and his eyes glistened.

It was clearly time for action, not answers. “Sunset.” Once detransformed, Adrien slid his Miraculous off his thumb. “You guys take care of each other,” he told Orikko and Nathaniel, then pointed at the other Miraculouses on the floor. “And keep those safe.” He took the Rabbit Miraculous from Nathaniel’s hand and replaced it with the Rooster Miraculous. Without looking to see what had happened to the kwamis during the hand-over, Adrien stood and said, “Fluff, clockwise!”

The transformation magic washed over him, and he ran toward Timejumper’s swiftly-closing portal and bounded through.

As soon as he came out the other side, he had a better idea what was going on.

Timejumper stood with his back to him, talking to the others already in the room. The others being Adrien, Marinette, Nino, and Alya. The room was fully furnished again, and the other him and his friends were standing around the couch with their homework spread out on the coffee table.

The four of them noticed him immediately, their eyes widening, but apparently Timejumper didn’t notice, as he kept talking. “ . . . so I need to warn you about—”

The umbrella that clocked him over the head from behind cut Timejumper short, and he collapsed, momentarily knocked out.

Alya let out a short shriek of surprise.

Marinette and Adrien jumped protectively in front of their friends. “Who are you?” Marinette demanded.

That was a good question. He could see the white and blue of his new uniform—more blue than white—and when he reached up, he felt long ears standing tall and proud. _Well, Nathaniel’s White Rabbit,_ _so . . ._ He shrugged. “I guess I’m the March Hare.” He smiled at his own joke. No one else did. Never mind; he could tell Plagg about it later.

“Uh, so, what’s going on, dude?” Nino asked.

March Hare took Timejumper’s umbrella and stashed it with his own, then grabbed Timejumper by the belt and picked him up like luggage. “Sorry about this impostor. Hope he didn’t bother you guys.”

“Impostor?” Adrien asked. “So he’s _not_ a Miraculous user?”

“Nope. _I’m_ the real Rabbit Miraculous user from the future.” For now, anyway. “This guy’s one of Hawk Moth’s.”

Alya crossed her arms. “How do we know _you’re_ not the impostor?”

“I guess I could detransform and show you Fluff,” he said, and Adrien’s and Marinette’s eyes lit up in recognition of the name, “but, you know, secret identities and all.”

“It’s fine,” Marinette said. “We believe you.”

“Is there trouble?” Adrien asked. “That guy said something about a warning.”

“Don’t pay any attention to anything he said. I’m sure it was just typical supervillain shenanigans. Anyway, I’d better hop on back to my time with this guy. See ya.” March Hare turned around to find that Timejumper’s portal had disappeared. He looked over his shoulder at the others watching him expectantly. “Heh. Ah, let me just . . . ” He had to shift his grip on Timejumper to get his hand on his own umbrella, fumbling with it in a very un-superhero-y way, but he managed to point it. “Burrow.” To his relief, the Burrow appeared without any problems.

Just before he stepped into it, he heard footsteps, then a hand touched his arm. “March Hare?”

He turned to find Marinette standing close, the others still several paces back. “Yeah?”

She leaned in and said quietly, “Are you sure that’s all you came here for?” There was suspicion in her eyes. Did she recognize him? If so, did she recognize him as Adrien or as Cat Noir?

March Hare glanced up at the room and at his friends. Based on what he saw, he knew when this was: a couple hours before Fairy Grandmother attacked and his whole life changed.

He understood now what Timejumper had come here to do. And he had a good guess why Ladybird and Black Tom had disappeared. But they were only passing thoughts as he looked back on this most critical moment of his own past.

He could make a different choice here. He could tell them the same thing that Timejumper had come to tell them. He could take it all back. He could change his own past and save himself, the girl he loved, a bunch of his friends, and a whole lot of other people a lot of pain, fear, uncertainty, and disruption of their lives.

But the thing was . . . he really couldn’t.

Maybe it was selfish—no, _probably_ it was selfish. But he couldn’t.

If he warned them about Fairy Grandmother, if he stopped her attack before it happened, then he wouldn’t have Marinette. And he wouldn’t have Louis.

Even if he and Marinette ended up together in a changed timeline, even if they had a kid together in the future, it wouldn’t be _this_ kid. Even if they named him Louis, he wouldn’t be _this_ Louis; he’d be Louis’s younger brother. Different sperm, different egg, different roll of the genetic dice.

He knew it was selfish, he knew other people hadn’t been able to adjust to everything as well as he and Marinette had, but he couldn’t bring himself to change the past.

He couldn’t unmake his son.

Louis was part of him now. Losing him would be like cutting out his own heart. _I would do almost anything to protect him_ , he thought. _Even if it means other people get hurt._ The realization sent a jolt of horror through him, but that changed nothing.

This was his choice, and he would live with the guilty conscience. If it would pay for letting his son live, he’d donate for the rest of his life to schools and hospitals and charities and college funds to help all the unexpected parents who were unable to provide for the other Fairy Grandmother kids. He’d keep being the face of the movement, keep encouraging everyone to help each other out, keep doing whatever he needed to. Even that still wouldn’t solve everything, but the only thing that would was the non-existence of his son, and that was a price he wasn’t willing to pay.

So he met Marinette’s calculating gaze and said softly, “ _Orange_ you glad you don’t have to deal with this one, Ladybug?” Another too-private joke.

Her eyes widened, and her mouth opened. She looked extremely kissable, but he resisted. He wanted to at least take her hand, but his younger self was watching, and he didn’t want to start a fight.

No, wait. His younger self wouldn’t care. He and Marinette were _just friends_.

_Man, how stupid could I be?_

“It’ll be all right,” he told Marinette, knowing she didn’t understand what he was really telling her. “I promise.” Then he looked up at the others and added, “Just forget I was here, guys. Enjoy your day.”

He stepped into the Burrow before any of them could respond.

He hadn’t actually been in a Burrow before, but he’d heard about them. His looked different than the other ones he’d heard about. It was still a stark, white room, but March Hare’s Burrow was long, with a raised catwalk leading to a single full-length mirror at the other end. Maybe it would look different if he needed to go to different times or wasn’t sure where he needed to go. But right now, he only had one destination in mind. When he reached the mirror, he saw himself—sleek, mostly blue suit with big ears on top of his head. His hair had actually turned white, and his eyes were blue. _Good. I don’t look much like either Adrien or Cat Noir_ , he thought with relief. Hopefully that fact meant his past self and past friends would forget about the encounter and move on.

He reached out a hand and touched the mirror, which shimmered and changed into a scene of his bedroom, missing most of the furniture. Timejumper was beginning to stir as March Hare took them both through, back into the present.

Everything looked mostly as he’d left it, with a few exceptions. As soon as March Hare and Timejumper came through, Ladybird and Black Tom popped back into existence. They looked around in confusion.

“What happened?” Black Tom asked.

March Hare didn’t have time to answer, since Timejumper took that moment to lunge, reaching for his umbrella. March Hare struggled with him and managed to snatch the pocket watch from the villain and toss it to Ladybird.

Without missing a beat, she caught it, smashed it against the ground, and caught the akuma. As the purified butterfly fluttered away, March Hare dropped Pierre onto the ground. The poor guy was dazed, so March Hare gave him a minute to collect himself.

Black Tom looked between March Hare and the other hero in the room. “Uh . . . who are you guys?”

The new rooster hero had a much more elaborate costume than Cocky Boy’s had been, with wings painted down the back and feathery stripes of red and orange. His costume ended at the neck, and his red hair was swept up in a rooster-comb style that would have been extremely difficult to pull off with anything other than actual magic. It was so weird to see Nathaniel’s entire face, if Adrien hadn’t personally handed him the Rooster Miraculous, he might not have recognized him. _Ah, the old Clark Kent reverse disguise trick._

“We swapped Miraculouses while you were out,” he told Black Tom. “We’ll explain later. For now, you can call me March Hare.” He raised an eyebrow at his friend, indicating it was his turn.

“Um . . . Cockerel?”

March Hare put his hands on his hips. “Sweet. So, Ladybird, how about some magic ladybugs?”

“Oh! Right!” She tossed her yo-yo up. “Miraculous Ladybird!”

A tidal wave of magical ladybugs flowed through the room, and the rest of the team appeared.

March Hare swept Honey Bee into a tight hug, his heart bursting with relief to see her again.

She, however, didn’t seem to share the sentiment. She pushed him away by his shoulders but didn’t manage to break his grip. “Whoa! Who are you?”

He grinned and winked. “I’m the March Hare, Milady. Who were you expecting?”

Recognition and relief flashed briefly across her face . . . and then her eyes widened dramatically, and her hand came up to cover her mouth as she staggered back out of his grip. “It’s you,” she whispered. “Adrien? It was you?”

As soon as he opened his mouth to ask her how she remembered, he realized that _he_ remembered, too . . . the two strange rabbit heroes—or one hero and one impostor—who’d interrupted their fun study and hang out day. But Marinette had insisted that Alya stop asking questions about it, and they’d just about put it from their minds, chalking it up to typical supervillain interruptions, when Fairy Grandmother had attacked, and a random visit from a future hero hadn’t been worth thinking about again.

“It . . . it was me,” he said, hardly able to find his own voice.

“Whoa.”

March Hare looked over to see Carapace and Rena Rouge staring at him with looks of shock. But they held their tongues, at least, since Pierre was still in the room.

“I’ll, um . . . I’ll explain everything later,” March Hare said, nodding toward Pierre.

“You’d better,” said Rena.

Honey Bee took his hand in hers. “Can you at least tell us why you’re a rabbit?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s also kinda complicated, but the short answer is I swapped with him.” He pointed to Cockerel.

Cockerel. waved. “Uh, hi. I’m, uh . . . I’m Cockerel. Now.”

King Monkey propped his staff on his shoulders and draped his arms over it. “I’m so confused.”

“Indeed,” agreed Pegasus.

“Yeah,” said Rena. “All this playing Musical Miraculouses is getting confusing.”

“If it’s confusing for us,” said Viperion, “maybe it’s confusing for Hawk Moth, too.”

“Let’s hope so,” Honey Bee agreed. She released March Hare’s hand, her gaze sliding to Pierre. He was still on the floor, but now he was looking around at them all in confusion. “Now that—”

The door burst open, and Chloe barged in, trailed by her butler and Sabrina. “Pierre, you moron!” Completely ignoring every one of the nine superheroes in the room, she stomped over to Pierre and loomed over him with her hands on her hips. “What did you do?”

Pierre looked to the heroes for help, but they had nothing to offer him. “I . . . I guess I got akumatized.”

“And _what_ did you think _that_ would accomplish?”

It was a fair question, but not one Pierre immediately knew how to answer. “You . . . I . . . I hurt you. I don’t remember much, but I . . . think I wanted to fix it.”

“Fix it?” Chloe demanded. “Fix it how?”

When Pierre couldn’t answer, she shot her gaze around the room. Somehow, March Hare was the lucky one it landed on.

He shrugged. “He tried to go back in time and stop Fairy Grandmother’s attack.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw Honey Bee stiffen, and he heard Rena gasp. Yeah, he was gonna have some explaining to do.

And some apologizing.

Chloe turned her anger back on Pierre. “You what?!” She kicked him—not especially hard, and she almost lost her balance doing it, but he put his arms up to protect himself anyway. “And who asked you to do a boneheaded thing like that?”

Pierre looked up at her in utter confusion. “I mean, you . . . you said you hated what happened.”

“Maybe! But that doesn’t give you the right to take my daughter from me, you nincompoop! How _dare_ you? How dare you try to take her from me?! I haven’t even gotten to meet her yet!” She kicked him a bunch more, and Sabrina had to lend an arm so she didn’t fall over doing it.

“I’m sorry!” Pierre cried under Chloe’s kinda pathetic onslaught. “I didn’t know!”

“You should have! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” She kept it up for a while, punctuating each insult with a kick, until she was doing more crying than kicking. When she stopped kicking him altogether and the insults had turned into wails, Viperion helped Sabrina guide her onto the edge of the bed, where she sat and cried some more.

No one seemed to know what to do or what to say. March Hare sure didn’t. He felt as confused and guilty as Pierre probably did. His choice not to change the past had ensured that her pain wouldn’t be erased, but Chloe didn’t appear to want that.

Pierre crawled across the floor to kneel at her feet. “Miss Bourgeois, please. Tell me how I can help. I’ll do whatever you want me to. I . . . I love you, Miss Bourgeois.”

She lowered her hands from her face enough to eye him. “You . . . you what?”

“I love you!” His face was red, but he pushed through like a champ. “I’ve loved you for a long time, even before Fairy Grandmother’s attack. My greatest wish is that you would be safe and happy. That’s all I want. I’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen. Just tell me what I can do.”

Chloe sniffed and wiped her face with her hands. “You will?”

“Yes! I promise! Anything!”

She looked him up and down. “Well. In that case, I guess I can let you hang around for a little while. Until I decide what I think about you.”

From the elation on Pierre’s face, anyone might have thought she’d told him she loved him back. “Thank you, Miss Bourgeois! Thank you! I’ll make you happy, I promise!”

“You’d better. Now help me up.” She lifted her hand, and he hurried to help her to her feet. Once she was up, she seemed to really see most of the heroes for the first time. “What are you still doing here?” She raised an eyebrow at March Hare and Cockerel. “Who are you two?” Then she spotted Honey Bee. “And _who_ are _you_? What are you doing with my Miraculous?”

Honey Bee sighed. “I’m just borrowing it. Don’t worry.”

Chloe _humph_ ed. “You’d better give it back when you’re done!”

“I’ll give it back to the person it belongs to,” Honey Bee said sweetly.

Chloe opened her mouth to argue and doubled over in pain.

“Chloe!” Sabrina cried. “What is it?”

Chloe smacked Pierre in the stomach. “Get me to the hospital, you dolt!”

Pierre grabbed Chloe around the waist to keep her from falling over. “The baby’s coming?”

“I’ll get the car!” Sabrina cried and raced out of the room.

Chloe’s butler was the only one not panicking. “I’ll call ahead to inform the hospital you are on your way, Miss Chloe.”

After they all left the room, the heroes stood there in awkward silence for a few seconds.

“I kinda feel bad for the guy,” said Carapace.

“Me, too,” agreed Cockerel.

“Nah,” said King Monkey. “I get it. I’m glad I have Ondine now, but there is something about Chloe.”

Most of the group looked at him like he was crazy. March Hare offered, “She does . . . have her good points.”

Honey Bee took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Is anyone on a timer?”

March Hare, Pegasus, Carapace, and Rena Rouge raised their hands.

“All right. It sounds like we need a debrief. Viperion, is your place free?”

“My mom’s out,” he answered, “but Juleka might be there.”

Cockerel. raised his hand. “Um, I don’t think that matters. Juleka figured me out when I left class with the rest of you the other day. I think she’s probably figured most of you guys out, too.”

Honey Bee smacked her hand over her face. “Great. Well, let’s head over and hope she’s not there, but we’ll stay even if she is.”

They filed out through the open window.

March Hare bounced on his toes. “Hey, Carapace, wanna race?”

His friend cocked an eyebrow at him. “You know how that story ends, right?”

“Yeah, but I know better than to underestimate you.”

Carapace laughed. “In that case, you’re on.”

#

Hawk Moth stood in his lair, reflecting on yet another failure. His plan would have worked if Adrien hadn’t interfered with it for long enough to the superheroes to arrive. Hawk Moth should have been angry at his son for that, but he wasn’t. Instead, he stood in silence, cataloging the emotions swirling around inside him.

Frustration at the failure.

Annoyance at Adrien’s interference.

Pride at the skill with which Adrien engaged Timejumper.

Relief that . . .

No, skip that one.

But the primary emotion that Hawk Moth felt, the thing that stretched his mouth into an ear-to-ear grin, was immense pleasure. Because as soon as Timejumper had returned to the present, Hawk Moth had made contact with him and so had seen what Timejumper had seen.

Not the two new heroes. There were so many new heroes popping up lately, a couple more showing up wasn’t worth capturing the bulk of his attention.

No, it was something else. Something that the heroes probably assumed he hadn’t caught: the two adult heroes reappearing after Timejumper’s attempt to change the past had been thwarted.

Hawk Moth had seen. And Hawk Moth had understood.

“You may have stopped me from changing my past, Ladybird and Black Tom, but what makes you think I’ll continue to let you interfere with yours?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, a little cameo by Cockerel, who is a major character in my on-hold WIP, "Who and Whose".


	110. Chapter 110

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I've been slow updating lately. I've been puzzling over this one tricky part (figuring out exactly what to do), but once I get it done, should be smooth sailing through to the end (I know clearly how I want the rest to go).

Juleka wasn’t at the barge when they arrived, which was a relief. If she did know about some of them, it was unlikely she knew about _all_ of them, and since she wasn’t an actual or even known future member of the team, Marinette really didn’t want her knowing any more than she already did if they could help it.

So they all went to Luka’s place, detransformed, and got some food. Ladybird and Black Tom sat at the bar in their supersuits again, looking like the outcast strangers, but all of the rest of the seating, including some of the floor, was taken up by everyone else.

Marinette tucked her feet up onto the couch and turned to the boy beside her. “Okay, Adrien, first why don’t you tell us what happened?”

Adrien did. When he got to the part about following Timejumper into the past, everyone sat forward to listen.

“I can’t believe that was you, dude,” Nino said.

“I know,” agreed Alya. “I thought going into the past would change things, but that was, like, just fulfilling what already happened.”

Adrien shook his head. “That’s the thing. It wasn’t. I _did_ change the past.” His brow furrowed. “It’s hard to explain, but it’s like . . . I have two sets of memories of that day. In that time before the attack, I mean. One set is the same as what you guys remember, seeing the two—or what seemed like two—rabbit heroes appearing. But in the other set, buried underneath, that didn’t happen. I remember just hanging out and having a good time before the gas hit. And I’m pretty sure _that_ set of memories is what really happened before I went back in time.”

Marinette couldn’t take her eyes off of him. For the usual reason, of course, but also because she was fascinated by what he was saying. “The future Bunnyx said, ‘What’s seen can’t be unseen.’ Maybe something about the Rabbit Miraculous kept your memories from fully changing along with the rest of ours. Or maybe it was being the one time-traveling that did it.”

She looked over to Nathaniel to see if he had anything to say and found him watching Ladybird and Black Tom with a pensive expression.

Those two had to already be changing their past. When they got back, would they also have two sets of memories?

“So anyway, then I brought him back, and Ladybird took care of the akuma and did her magic ladybug thing,” Adrien finished.

Ladybird, Black Tom, and Nathaniel were all strangely quiet, not reacting to what Adrien said. Maybe it was because they’d been there . . . or maybe it was because there was something they knew which Adrien wasn’t telling the rest of them.

Marinette didn’t ask. If Adrien wasn’t telling the team, it probably had something to do with Ladybird’s and Black Tom’s identities, since that was the only subject they all needed to know as little as possible about.

Adrien suddenly grew uncomfortable, looking down at his hands in his lap. “Isn’t anyone going to yell at me?”

“Yell at you?” Marinette asked. “For what?”

Even though they were sitting next to each other on the couch, the look of guilt that he gave her made it feel like there was a chasm between them. “For not fixing things when I had the chance.”

Even from across the room, she heard the sharp breaths from Ladybird and Black Tom.

It took her several seconds to figure out what Adrien meant.

Alya was quicker. “Don’t you dare, Agreste! If you’d taken my daughter from me without even asking, I would have beat your butt from here to Jupiter.”

He actually smiled a little at that. “So you’re glad I didn’t change anything?”

Alya huffed and flopped back in her seat. “I mean, yeah, everything was scary and awful for a while, but I wouldn’t give my baby up for the world. And I know I’m not the only one who feels that way.”

Marinette grasped Adrien’s hand so hard she was afraid she might hurt him. “You did exactly the right thing, Adrien.” She remembered something a little more clearly all of a sudden, what March Hare had told her right before he’d gone through his Burrow. “You promised me everything would be all right. And it is.”

“I’m with my lady on this one,” said Nino. “Not that I’d have blamed her for not wanting to go through what she did, but as far as I’m concerned, I wouldn’t want it changed, either.”

“Really?” Adrien asked.

“I got an awesome daughter and I locked down the girl I love. Why would I want any of that changed?”

“Me, neither!” agreed Kim.

“I don’t think Alix would have wanted it taken back either,” Nathaniel said softly. “Even with everything she went through, she loves the boys.”

“What about you?” Adrien asked him.

Nathaniel shook his head like he thought Adrien was being stupid. “Why do you think I begged you to take my Miraculous and stop Timejumper?”

Adrien sighed and relaxed. “I’m glad you all feel that way. I knew some people would say the right thing to do would have been to do to fix it, but . . . I just couldn’t lose Louis.” His eyes grew wet with unshed tears. “I couldn’t lose my son.”

Marinette wrapped him in a hug. “Thank you for saving him, Adrien. Thank you for stopping Timejumper.”

His arms around her tightened, and after a few more seconds, he sat back. “I just wish I could apologize to Marc or Mireille or Nathalie or . . . well, any of the others who might not be as happy about it.”

“No one would blame you, Adrien,” said Luka. He and Max were staying pretty quiet through all this, as were Ladybird and Black Tom. “Just like no one blamed you and Ladybug when it happened the first time. Life is full of pain. Sometimes, painful things end up being a blessing in the end. Even when they don’t, not stopping it doesn’t make you responsible for it.”

Marinette heard a strange sound and looked toward the bar. Black Tom’s face was buried in Ladybird’s shoulder, her arms wrapped around his head while his hung at his side. His back was shaking.

“Um, is he okay?” Marinette asked.

“He’s fine,” Ladybird said, sounding a little choked up herself. “He’s just a big baby.”

Kim stretched his legs out on the floor and leaned against the wall with his hands folded behind his head. “Anyway, who else wants to talk about where Timejumper sent them? I got in a fight with a triceratops!” He said that in the same way someone might announce they’d found fifty euros on the ground.

They all shared, but none of them had a more interesting story than that. Most of history was actually pretty boring, especially when they only got to experience a random few minutes of it. Marinette had gotten sent to a seemingly average day in the 1960s, which at least meant that it had been easy for her to detransform and feed Pollen after her failed attempt to use Venom on Timejumper.

They adjourned the meeting, and everyone started heading up to the deck. “Be up in a minute,” Adrien told her before letting go of her hand.

She gave him a questioning look, but he only smiled gently.

When she got up on deck, she noticed the only other people not coming up were Nathaniel, Ladybird, and Black Tom.

“Aren’t they coming?” Alya asked.

“In a minute,” Marinette said.

Alya grew suspicious. “They’re hiding something, aren’t they?”

“If they are, it probably has to do with time-travel,” Marinette said, “which means we shouldn’t ask about it. Right?” She gave her friend a pointed look.

For several seconds, Alya clearly wanted to pry, but then she sighed. “Right. Nino and I’ll go home. We told Geneviève we all needed to go to the store, so I guess we’d better pick something up on the way back.”

The rest of them left, leaving Marinette standing on the deck with Luka. There was a peaceful, comfortable silence between them that could have gone on forever.

Marinette broke it. “What about you, Luka? Do you wish he’d given you another chance with me?”

Luka laughed softly. “I never had a chance with you, Marinette. I figured that out as soon as I learned your identities. If you’d never met him, yeah, we might have had something together, and I would have liked that. But as long as he was around, you two were always going to end up together. And I’m happy for you. Truly.”

Marinette smiled and squeezed Luka’s hand. “You’re an amazing person, Luka. You’re going to make some lucky girl very happy one of these days.”

He squeezed her hand back and smiled, and they waited.

#

Black Tom had a hard time looking his dad in the eye after everything that had just happened.

Ladybird didn’t have the same problem. “All right, spill. What happened to us back there?”

The four of them were alone in the living area part of the ship, and the door to above deck was closed.

Adrien and Nathaniel exchanged a look. Adrien asked him, “They’re some of the kids that were born because of Fairy Grandmother, aren’t they?”

Black Tom’s heart sped up, but his dad hadn’t guessed the full truth, at least.

Nathaniel nodded.

“How did you figure that out?” Ladybird asked, losing patience.

Adrien held up his hands to calm her down. “All right. I’ll tell you. As soon as Timejumper went through his portal to the past, the two of you disappeared. _That’s_ where you went while Nathaniel and I swapped Miraculouses. You didn’t exist.”

All the blood seemed to drain from Black Tom’s head. “We didn’t . . . exist?”

Nathaniel answered. “Between the time that Timejumper went back and the time that he and Adrien returned after Adrien stopped him from changing anything, we were living in a timeline where the two of you—and everyone else like you—were never born.”

“But the two of you still remembered everything the way it was originally,” Ladybird said.

Nathaniel shrugged. “Maybe it has to do with the Miraculous. Maybe the memories of history don’t change immediately. Maybe the change didn’t lock in while his portal to the past was still open. The reason doesn’t really matter.”

“I just wanted to check,” said Adrien, “that I made the right call in leaving their vanishing act out of the story I told the rest of the team. I don’t want to keep anything from the others—especially Marinette—unless I really have to.”

Nathaniel shifted his weight. “I know I’m not an expert, but I think you did. Marinette said everyone should avoid learning any clues about their identities, and that’s definitely one.”

Adrien frowned. “Then I’ll try not to think any more about it. Not that it’ll be easy.”

The two of them nodded, and they turned to head up to the deck.

Black Tom reached out and grabbed Adrien’s shoulder, pulling him back into a fierce hug. Ladybird did the same with Nathaniel.

Black Tom had hugged his dad a seemingly infinite number of times throughout his life, but it had never felt like this, with Adrien’s body so much smaller than his own, Adrien’s voice muffled against his chest.

“Thank you,” Black Tom said, his throat so tight it was hard to get the words out. “You saved our lives back there. Both of you.” Ladybird released Nathaniel first, so Black Tom caught his young uncle’s eye. “We owe you.”

Nathaniel blushed and looked away, smiling awkwardly. “If you say so. I’ll remember that.”

Ladybird ruffled Nathaniel’s hair and put him in a one-armed headlock hug before releasing him again.

Finally, Black Tom let Adrien go.

His dad looked confused, but pleased. “I want to thank you guys, too.”

“For what?” Black Tom asked.

“For giving me your gratitude to fight back the guilt. I’ll probably have times when I’ll need it. Speaking of which, I’d better call Nathalie to make sure she’s okay and tell her that I am, then go to the hospital to check on Chloe.”


	111. Chapter 111

Marinette didn’t go with Adrien to support Chloe during her delivery at the hospital (for reasons that no one needed explained to them), but she didn’t harbor any negative feelings toward her old bully for taking her fiancé’s time and attention—especially when she found out that Adrien’s primary purpose for being there was to politely keep Chloe’s parents out of the room during her labor. The two of them were way too stressful for her to have around. The only people Chloe allowed in the room with her, other than Adrien and the medical staff, were Sabrina and Pierre. Apparently, even though he hadn’t had a partner to go with, Pierre had paid close attention to the childbirth classes his school had held. And apparently the constant stream of reassurance—and a convenient outlet for her anger and pain—helped Chloe’s delivery go a bit smoother than it might otherwise have.

Miss Bustier didn’t even mind the regular texts that Marinette kept getting from Adrien during class or when Marinette would interrupt her to share one of the more momentous announcements. Even though Chloe wasn’t exactly liked by most of the people at school, they were all concerned enough about her to eagerly await news that everything had gone fine with her delivery.

When the last text came along with a picture of a sweaty and exhausted Chloe holding her newborn, Marinette jumped out of her seat and interrupted Kim’s attempt to answer Miss Bustier’s question. “Touchdown!” Everyone looked at her in confusion. “I mean, uh, Chloe had her baby! Look!” She forwarded the text to everyone, and they all cheered and grabbed for their phones, even Miss Bustier.

“What a cute baby!” Rose squealed.

“Man, she looks wiped,” Alix said sympathetically.

“Clarisse Bourgeois,” Max read from his phone. “So she didn’t want to give her baby the father’s last name.”

“Chloe?” Kim said with a snort. “If Pierre ends up marrying her, he’ll be lucky if she lets _him_ keep his last name.”

Nathaniel chuckled but said nothing.

Alya said, “From the way he fawns over her, I doubt he cares. That boy’s gotta have something wrong in his head.”

“Be nice, Alya,” Miss Bustier told her. “Chloe has many good qualities. I think it’s wonderful that she’s found someone who appreciates her—and that she’s giving herself the chance to explore what he might bring to her life.”

Mylène said, “That’s the last baby from our class. It’s hard to believe it’s been nine months since everything happened.”

“Easy for you to say,” Alya said. “Though it is weird that it’s all over.”

“It’s not over,” Marinette corrected. “It won’t ever be over. We’ve just all moved on to the next phase now.”

After a brief, contemplative silence, Miss Bustier said, “Take a moment to send Chloe your congratulations if you’d like, then let’s refocus on the lesson.”

#

On Thursday morning, Marinette’s alarm woke her an hour before school. Light was coming through the curtains, but she kept them closed and stumbled to the bathroom. The door was locked, so she let her forehead fall against the door, then swiveled her body to glance back at the beds in the room. Alya’s was still occupied.

The door opened, and Marinette almost fell on top of Alix, but she managed to catch herself.

“Morn’,” Alix mumbled around her toothbrush.

“Gotta pee,” Marinette said as she stumbled forward, still mostly asleep. The bathroom was spacious enough that the three of them could move around in it at the same time if they needed to, and the whole pregnancy and childbirth experience had made them significantly less shy than they might have once been. Besides, they were all girls here. So Marinette staggered past Alix and the sinks to the toilet.

She still wasn’t entirely awake by the time she got downstairs to the nursery. Alix was already in there, feeding both twins simultaneously with the help of a special nursing cushion. Marinette envied how casual and comfortable Alix was with the whole thing. Just out there in the open (well, in the privacy of the nursery), dual wielding her sons like a total boss. Meanwhile, Marinette kept trying once a week or so to nurse Louis directly, and it still felt so uncomfortable that she couldn’t do it for more than a couple minutes. He didn’t even have a problem latching on; it was all her, and whenever she had to interrupt his feeding time to switch to a bottle, he cried, which she couldn’t blame him for.

This morning, she didn’t try. Louis was still sleeping in his crib, so Marinette got the pump set up and going. Alya came down to nurse Keva after a bit, and the three of them talked about nothing while they tried to finish waking up.

As soon as Marinette turned the pump off and started unstrapping it, the door burst open.

“Marin—Ah! Sorry!” Adrien slapped a hand over his eyes. “Sorry!”

Marinette scrambled to get the pump off and her shirt back on. Alya casually draped a towel over her shoulder, covering her breast and Keva, and drowsily muttered, “Nothing he hasn’t already seen.” Alix didn’t react at all.

“What is it, Adrien?” Marinette asked as she fought with her shirt.

He kept his eyes covered as he answered. “Your dad called. He said he tried to call you, but you didn’t answer.”

“My phone’s in the bedroom.”

He held his up as if that would help explain things. “They’ve been at the hospital all night. Your mom went into labor yesterday evening.”

“What?!” She ran to him and grabbed his wrist, pulling the phone closer. “Why didn’t they call us then?”

He lowered his hand to look at her. “He said they didn’t want to keep us up. But it’s over now.” He smiled. “You have a little sister, Marinette.”

Behind her, Alya and Alix cheered. Still smiling, Adrien reacted by looking over at them, then flinched and looked away as a blush spread across his cheeks.

Marinette grabbed both of his wrists. “Are they okay?”

“Yeah. They’re both fine. Want to go see them?”

“Yes!”

He chuckled. “Me, too. You go get ready. I’ll call school to let them know we’ll be late, then start getting Louis fed and ready.”

They got ready in record time, although Louis remained restless in his baby sling, almost as if he was absorbing the excitement from his parents. Marinette had to keep tucking his hands back into the sling and making sure the bandage on his arm didn’t come off.

The hospital room where they found her parents wasn’t big like the one she’d gotten but a normal-sized one like Alix’s had been. As soon as they came in, Tom stood up from the chair beside the bed and spread his arms wide.

“Marinette! Adrien! Good morning!” He went over and scooped all three of them into an excited (but gentle, because of Louis) hug. “Isn’t it a wonderful morning?”

Marinette laughed. “It is, Dad. Now, where’s my little sister?” She tried to peer around Tom, but he was so big that she couldn’t even catch sight of her mom until he moved. When he did, she rushed over. “Mom!”

Sabine gave her a tired smile. She was holding a small bundle to her chest. “Good morning, Marinette.” She shifted the baby so Marinette could see her face. “Meet Renée.”

Marinette squealed softly and reached out to stroke the baby’s head. “She’s so cute!” Renée was sleeping peacefully against Sabine’s chest. Her head was so velvety and warm.

Happiness bubbled up inside Marinette. Babies were always adorable, of course, but this was different than seeing her own baby or one of her friends’. She had a connection with Renée that she hadn’t ever had with anyone before and most likely wouldn’t ever have with anyone else. They were _sisters_. She’d long since accepted that she’d be an only child forever; actually having a real sister, even one so much younger than her, was a whole new kind of amazing.

Adrien and Tom came around the other side of the bed. “She’s adorable, Sabine,” said Adrien. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you, Adrien.”

Louis started fussing again. Marinette carefully took him out of the sling. “Is it okay if I lay him down, Mom?”

“Of course, dear.” Sabine moved one of her arms so she could hold him as well when Marinette laid him down.

Louis’s head lolled, and he reached out a hand toward Renée. She stirred a little, and her eyes opened into slits. Louis made a cute baby sound.

“Look at that!” Tom announced. “They get along great already!”

Marinette, Adrien, and Louis spent an hour with her parents and new little sister before leaving to let them rest.

When Marinette went to the nursery later that evening, she found a new sign hanging on the door, one that could be turned over as needed like an _Open/Closed_ sign. On one side it said, _Safe_ , and on the other it said, _Boobs Out – Please Knock_.

#

When they got to school on Friday, Marinette was surprised to see Chloe standing in the courtyard, showing off her baby to a small group of well-wishers. It wasn’t so much _that_ she was doing it that was surprising. It was more _how_ she was doing it. Baby Clarisse was in one of those baby carriers that had the baby facing forward so she could see everything—and her dad was the one wearing it. Chloe stood beside them with Sabrina, doing all the talking. Pierre just stood there patiently with a happy smile on his face, like a living display stand.

As soon as Adrien saw them, he waved and called out, “Chloe! Pierre! Good morning!”

Chloe swept everyone she was talking to aside with one arm. “Adrikins!” She hurried over (clearly going as fast as she could, but it wasn’t all that fast so soon after giving birth) and threw her arms around Adrien’s neck. “Good morning!”

Adrien gently pried her arms off of him and pushed her back. “How are you feeling?”

“Positively awful. I hurt everywhere, and I’m leaking all over the place. But never mind that. Look how adorable my baby is!” She turned to show off her baby, and Pierre was already there, right where she expected him.

“She’s beautiful, Chloe,” Marinette said. “Hi, Pierre. I’m surprised to see you here. Aren’t you missing your own classes?”

“I go here now!” Pierre said with a huge smile. He held Clarisse’s tiny hands between his fingers, stroking the soft baby skin with his thumbs. “Mr. Bourgeois got my transfer pushed through right away.”

“Of course he did,” said Chloe. “How are you supposed to be here to dote on me and my daughter if you aren’t actually here?”

Neither Marinette nor Adrien chose to comment on ‘my daughter’. Adrien said, “Your parents actually accepted Pierre?”

“As if I gave them a choice. I told them _I’m_ the only one who gets to decide when I’m tired of him.”

“Heh.” Marinette smiled into her hand. “Good for you, Chloe. And I’m sorry about tricking you into talking to him. We really could have handled that better.”

Chloe sniffed. “Well, it worked out in the end, so I’ll forgive you.”

#

“Nathalie, would you come look at this?” Gabriel stood back from his workstation. His assistant’s duties had shifted so that she was only here at the mansion for a few hours off and on throughout the day, so he needed to get her input while he could.

It took her quite a while to get out of her chair, around her desk, and across the large room. _Maybe I should help her_ , he thought, but not until she’d nearly arrived.

It had been a week since he’d discovered that Ladybird and Black Tom were from the future, but he hadn’t yet had time to do anything about it. He was in an intensely busy season with his work, and he’d had _two_ birth celebrations which he’d been socially obligated to attend. While he had sensed several possible akuma victims in that time, he could no longer afford to simply akumatize everyone possible and hope to get lucky. With adults in possession of the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses and an apparently exhaustive supply of fresh teen superheroes ready to step in to fight him, he needed to play things smarter than ever before. He had already decided on his next step, but he needed to wait until the time was right to put it into action.

As Nathalie looked at the spreadsheets he had open, he observed the tension in her brow, the faint sheen on her temples, and the shortness of her breaths. “Nathalie, are you feeling well?”

“Well enough, sir,” she said, not pausing her inspection of the screen.

“Are you certain?”

“I’ll be fine.”

He watched her for two full minutes. When her jaw clenched, held, and then released, he asked, “Nathalie. Are you in labor?”

“Quite possibly, sir.”

A strange and sudden panic struck him. “Why didn’t you say something?!”

His outburst got her attention. “Labor typically takes several hours. I’m sure I’ll be able to work until lunch.”

Gabriel rubbed his forehead. “Nathalie, I’m taking you to the hospital. Now.”

The tension lines between her eyebrows faded slightly. “If you insist.”

Gabriel called in the driver-cum-bodyguard, and the gorilla-like man did an impressive mime act of a chicken with its head cut off, but eventually he got Nathalie’s bag collected and Nathalie deposited safely in the sedan. Gabriel sat silently next to her in the car, then helped her get checked into the hospital.

“Are you the father?” a nurse asked as another nurse led Nathalie down the hallway.

“Y-yes,” Gabriel answered.

“Would you like to go in with her?”

“No. That’s all right. I’ll wait here.”

“This could take several hours.”

“Yes, I know.”

The nurse left, and Gabriel took a seat in the maternity ward’s waiting area. It was rather crowded, but Gabriel found a corner with a small amount of privacy. Two pregnant women were waiting for rooms, already breathing heavily as their partners held their hands and nursing staff hurried around like worker ants. Nathalie had clearly used some of his money to reserve a private room for when she thought she might need it.

Was it strange to feel pride in one’s assistant’s efficiency and forethought?

Gabriel took out his phone and called Geneviève, then called his driver to instruct him to pick her up.

The room was thick with so many emotions, it was almost stifling. Hope, fear, anger, pain, anxiety. Gabriel almost took off his Miraculous so he wouldn’t have to sense all of it, but he had nowhere safe to put it if he did, so he pushed the sensations to the back of his mind.

Waiting alone in such a crowded, public place was extremely distasteful, and a woman across the room was taking pictures of him when she thought he wasn’t looking, but for some reason he didn’t want to leave.

When Geneviève arrived, she went right to the nearest nurse, and in a moment she was being led down the hallway to Nathalie’s room. The driver came in behind her, met Gabriel’s eyes with upturned brows of concern, then found a place to sit a discreet distance away.

“May I sit here?”

Gabriel looked up, unsurprised to see his son. “I thought you might come.”

Adrien took the seat beside him. “Of course I came.”

“I’m surprised Marinette didn’t come as well.”

“She wanted to, but I had the feeling too many people might make things uncomfortable for you.”

“That was . . . thoughtful. Thank you.”

They waited. To Gabriel’s surprise, Adrien didn’t ask about the baby or fret over Nathalie or babble about his day in order to fill the silence. He simply sat and waited, letting his presence speak for itself.

_He’s growing up_ , Gabriel thought. _Emilie will be so proud when she sees him._ Proud, but surprised, and probably sad for having missed important parts of his life.

“Your mother’s not dead, Adrien.” Gabriel wasn’t sure why he said it. The words had come out before any thought had been given to them.

Adrien’s eyes widened. “What?”

“She’s not missing, either. The truth is, she’s in . . . a sort of coma.”

Adrien’s face paled slightly. “She is?”

Gabriel nodded. “I’ve been trying my best to find a way to cure her. Nathalie’s been helping me.”

“Nathalie’s been . . . ? Where is she? Can I see her?”

“No. She’s in a . . . special facility.” If Gabriel didn’t know that Adrien had been Cat Noir, he would have agreed to let him see his mother. But if Adrien saw all the butterflies and cocoons that were down there with her, he’d realize the truth, and Gabriel wasn’t ready for that. “She’s still alive, but she’s been completely unresponsive ever since she fell ill.”

Adrien slumped down in his chair as if the news had knocked the wind out of him. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth before?”

“I thought I was protecting you. But you’ve grown up a great deal since then, and I can see that you no longer need protecting.”

Adrien looked at him, his gaze sharpening. “That’s not the only reason you’re telling me now, is it?”

Gabriel examined his hands. “I need you to know why I can’t do what you want. What the—” His throat spasmed closed, and he swallowed. “What my new son will likely want. I won’t give up on Emilie until I’ve exhausted every possible option to save her.”

Adrien was silent for long enough that Gabriel turned his head to look at him. The expression on Adrien’s face was far more knowing and burdened than it should have been for anyone his age. “I understand, Father.”

Gabriel believed that he did.

Several hours later, a nurse came over to them. “Everything went smoothly. Mother and baby are both doing fine. Would you like to see them?”

Gabriel felt a nervous fluttering in his stomach, but he stood. “Yes.”

Adrien stood as well, and the nurse raised an eyebrow at him.

“This is my son, Adrien,” Gabriel said.

The nurse smiled at Adrien. “Oh, yes. I’ve seen your videos and posts. You’ve helped this whole situation more than you probably know.”

Adrien swallowed. “Um, good. I just . . . do what I can.” His face turned slightly pink, and he looked down. It appeared to be a blush of bashfulness at the praise, but the emotion that Gabriel sensed from him through his Miraculous was . . . guilt.

It made no sense, but Gabriel had no time to ponder it as the nurse led them back.

As soon as they entered the room, Adrien cried, “Nathalie!” and rushed to her. “Congratulations! How are you feeling?”

Gabriel approached more slowly, his own confused emotions making an unpleasant soup in his stomach.

Nathalie lay on the bed, dressed in only a hospital gown, hair sticking to her brow with sweat, her makeup smudged. He’d never seen her look so bad.

Or so happy.

“I’m all right, Adrien. Thank you for coming.” She looked at Gabriel as he approached, and Adrien and Geneviève moved back so he could go to her side.

Gabriel stood stiffly, unsure what to do. The baby in Nathalie’s arms was wrapped in a blanket and fussing slightly. “So . . . ” Gabriel said, and there he ran out of words.

“Would you like to hold your son, Gabriel?” Nathalie asked him.

His throat and fists tightened as a memory of Emilie saying those very same words to him crashed through his mind. This wasn’t right. Nothing about this was right.

But that was his own fault. Not Nathalie’s, and certainly not the child’s.

Gabriel forced his hands to relax and reached out. Nathalie handed him the infant, and Gabriel tucked the boy into the crook of his arm. As he looked at the small face, eyes shut but mouth opening and closing, Gabriel felt . . . shame.

This child was proof that he’d been unfaithful to the wife he loved. Oh, the act itself might not have been a choice, but his choice had certainly led to it, and when Emilie awoke, she would know it. How would she feel about this? How much would this boy’s existence hurt her?

Nathalie’s tired voice broke through his thoughts. “His name’s Sebastien. Sebastien Agreste . . . unless you object.”

Gabriel swallowed past the tightness in his throat. “No. I don’t object.” He’d already publicly acknowledged Nathalie’s child as his own. Even if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t try to pass the burden of his shame off on the boy. Not that anyone other than himself and Nathalie currently knew he had any reason to be ashamed. As far as anyone else knew, he was as much a victim as the rest of those affected by Fairy Grandmother’s gas.

“Can I hold him?” Adrien asked.

Nathalie smiled at him. “Of course.”

Adrien came over, and Gabriel allowed him to take the baby. As soon as the child was in his arms, Adrien beamed at him and rocked the baby gently. “Hi there, Sebastien. Guess what? I’m your big brother. I’m so happy to meet you.” He lifted the baby, tapping Sebastien’s nose with his own. “I haven’t been a big brother before, but I’m gonna do my best, okay? You’re gonna go home with us pretty soon, and you’re gonna love it there. You’ll have a nephew and a bunch of other friends your age to play with. We’re going to have so much fun.”

Sebastien had opened his eyes and was gazing at Adrien with rapt attention. Nathalie was watching them both with tears in her eyes. When Gabriel glanced to Geneviève, he saw her watching him with a proud, pleased smile. Maybe she was imagining that Gabriel would fall in love with her daughter now. Her gaze made him uncomfortable, so he returned his attention to Adrien.

Still bouncing the baby lightly, Adrien cooed and smiled at Sebastien, a natural with children in a way Gabriel had never been.

He got it from his mother.

The joy on Adrien’s face reminded Gabriel so strongly of Emilie, for a moment it was as if she was the one holding Sebastien. And that was when Gabriel realized . . .

_She’ll be fine with it._

Maybe it would hurt her, but she wouldn’t let that hurt rule her. She wouldn’t let it affect how she treated Sebastien or even Nathalie. Emilie was so full of love and compassion, so much like Adrien, that she wouldn’t see Sebastien as evidence of Gabriel’s mistakes or shame. She would only see a little boy who deserved to be loved.

Gabriel smiled at his sons and thought about how he would bring Emilie back to them.


	112. Chapter 112

Louis awoke to the strange but extremely nice sensation of something heavy, warm, and soft lying on top of him with his arms wrapped around it. With his brain still mostly asleep and his eyes still closed, his hands began wandering of their own volition, tracing the curves of the body ( _Body?_ ) from a trim waist down to a well-rounded—

His eyes snapped open, and his heart leapt into overdrive.

Keva was lying on top of him, her face tucked against his neck and his hands now unequivocally cupping her butt.

The devil inside him wanted to keep his hands right where they were and pretend to still be asleep, but luckily his inner devil was more like a naughty imp than an actual threat. His arms shot straight into the air and went stiff.

The movement was enough to wake Keva. With a deep inhale, she propped herself up with her elbows on his chest. “Louis?”

Maybe it was just the way she looked when she was sleepy, but for a second there, he could have sworn she was about to kiss him.

Well, if it was most girls, he might have thought that, but he knew Keva didn’t see him that way, so it was probably only his hopeful imagination.

“Morning?” he squeaked, suddenly acutely aware of the way her breasts were pressing against him.

She looked around in confusion. “Uh . . . ”

The adrenaline coursing through his body did a good job of waking him up. He sat up, and she slid off so that they were sitting beside each other on the couch. “We fell asleep watching Netflix,” he said. “I guess we must have been so tired, we just curled up here instead of getting ready for bed.” They were both still fully dressed from the day before. Since there hadn’t been an akuma sighting in over a week and they weren’t really allowed out of the apartment, it wasn’t like they’d been doing anything important. They’d just gotten on a _Criminal Minds_ kick and had spent all day binge watching.

Keva yawned and stretched. “Sorry. You make a pretty nice pillow, though.”

Louis blushed and looked away, too embarrassed to even try to think of a witty comeback. He spotted Plagg and Tikki hanging out on the armchair, both of them giving him looks that only made him blush harder.

“Good morning, you two,” Tikki said brightly. “Have a nice sleep?”

“I’d ask you if you got any sleeping done,” said Plagg, “but I was here the whole time.”

Louis shot him a _Will you shut up?!_ glare, but it didn’t do any good.

“Don’t worry, kitten,” Plagg continued. “I don’t have anything naughty to report back to your dad. Unless you count that little wandering hands episode.”

“Plagg!” Louis hissed.

Fortunately, Keva didn’t seem to be paying attention. She looked around the couch and mumbled, “Where’re my glasses?”

Tikki zipped down, plucked them from the floor, and handed them over.

“Aw, thanks, Tikki. You’re the best,” Keva said, putting them on. “I’m gonna take a shower.” She got up and went into the bathroom.

Louis sighed and rubbed at his hair.

“Why don’t you tell her how you feel?” Tikki asked.

Louis jumped. “How I feel? What do you mean, how I feel?”

Tikki giggled and floated near his face. “It’s obvious that you’re in love with her.”

He flopped back against the couch cushion. “Obvious, huh? I’m glad _she_ doesn’t think so.”

“Why?”

Louis got up and went into the kitchen area to get breakfast started. Tikki followed him, perching on top of the paper towel holder while Plagg scrounged some cheese for breakfast.

“I know I should tell her. I _want_ to tell her.” He pulled some eggs and bacon out of the fridge. “But I . . . I guess I’m too afraid to. We’re just friends, and that’s how it’s always been, even though I’ve been in love with her for years. She teases me, but I know she doesn’t have real feelings for me.”

“Maybe she does,” said Tikki.

“I guess it’s technically possible.” Louis set a pan on the stove and turned the burner on. “But in the more likely event that she doesn’t, me telling her how I feel will just make things awkward and probably spoil our friendship.”

“And around and around it goes,” Plagg said, drifting by.

While the pan heated, Louis opened the package of bacon. “But . . . I want to tell her soon. Before we go back. In case . . . in case somehow we’re changing things enough that I won’t have a chance to do it after we go back.”

Concern clouded Tikki’s features, then she said, “The future is always uncertain, Louis. That’s why the best time to tell someone how you feel is usually right now.”

“Right now. Right,” he muttered. _Right now_ wasn’t on the table. But he’d work on trying to make _soon_ happen.

Louis and Keva had fallen into a comfortable—some might say lazy—life here in the past. Since they couldn’t really go out and experience what Paris had to offer, they amused themselves, mostly by running around as superheroes or by staying in and watching TV. No matter what they did, Louis had a good time since it was with Keva. She was smart and funny, and she had a great laugh. He didn’t think he could ever get tired of spending time with her.

This whole experience was like some amazing computer simulation where he got to live two unbelievable realities at once: being a superhero and being married to the woman he loved. Well, almost. Being married to her would include a lot more cuddling and kissing and . . . other things.

_Don’t even go there_ , he told himself as the bathroom door opened and a wet, towel-wrapped Keva stepped out. He knew a lot of women with bodies and faces that more closely aligned with established standards of beauty, but none of them made his heart pound in his chest like she did.

She stopped on her way back to the bedroom and gave him a cocky smile. “A man in the kitchen; that’s what I like to see.”

_A woman in nothing but a towel; that’s what I like to see._

He didn’t say it, of course. He dropped his eyes to the pan of eggs he was working on.

_If you like what you see, what are you gonna do about it?_

That one was safer, but still far too forward. He needed something that would make her blush but wouldn’t throw up a huge, invisible barrier of awkwardness between them.

But all he could do was stand there, cooking eggs, his face getting hotter and hotter until he said, “Helpy to ha—uh, happy to help. It’s almost ready.”

Keva chuckled to herself and went into the bedroom.

_She got me again._

Louis had just finished putting the food on two plates when his phone rang. He hurried to the coffee table where he’d left it. “Hello?”

He hadn’t paused to see who was calling, but he recognized the most familiar voice in the world to him the moment she took a breath.

“Black Tom, are you busy?”

“Not really, Marinette. What’s up?”

“There are some rumors on the Ladyblog about people spotting Mr. Pigeon. The rest of us are in an assembly (I asked to go to the bathroom), and Mr. Pigeon is the lamest villain we’ve ever faced. I’m honestly shocked Hawk Moth’s even bothering with him again.”

“Sure, we’ll check it out. No problem.”

The bedroom door opened as soon as he hung up. “Duty calls?” Keva asked.

“Apparently it’s an easy one, so Marinette just wants us to go.”

Keva looked at the food and pouted. “It’s gonna be cold by the time we get back.”

“We can warm it up. Come on. Claws out.”

While running across rooftops in the morning was invigorating, they didn’t see any sign of Mr. Pigeon or any other supervillain. Ladybird even used her yo-yo to check the Ladyblog and read the rumors for herself. There were only a few comments saying anything about it, and more recent ones from other people contradicting them, but Ladybird and Black Tom made sure to go to the spot mentioned in the rumors. They even made a few wider circles of the area, but nothing was going on.

“False alarm?” Ladybird asked.

Black Tom shrugged.

So they headed back to the apartment.

#

“Follow them, Vanisher,” Hawk Moth commanded.

Even though they were adults, Ladybird and Black Tom were obviously still young and inexperienced enough to not recognize a trap when they saw one.

“But what about my brother?” asked Vanisher. This wasn’t the same Vanisher as the girl he’d akumatized into that persona before, but her motive wasn’t all that different. He’d needed someone to play this role, and Chloe’s little friend hadn’t had any emotional breakdowns lately. Luckily, it was never difficult to find someone going through emotional distress due to feelings of being ignored.

“You’ll get your revenge soon,” he lied, fully intending to recall the akuma once he’d gotten what he needed. “First, you must do your part.”

Vanisher complied, moving from her hiding spot to follow the retreating heroes. If Hawk Moth had only given her the power of invisibility, she likely would have lost them, but he’d given this Vanisher the power of teleportation as well.

Unseen and following at a discreet distance, Vanisher followed the two oblivious heroes across the city until they entered a certain apartment building through a window. Vanisher stayed on a rooftop nearby, waiting for them to exit.

They didn’t.

Hawk Moth grinned. “So that’s where you two have been hiding.”

#

“Keva,” Louis called, “I need to go out.”

She came out of the bedroom with a book in her hand. “Why?”

“We’re out of strawberries.”

She tossed the book on the coffee table and leaned over the counter to see what he was making.

“Tarts,” he explained, “but we’re out of strawberries.” He wasn’t great at baking—and as a model, he couldn’t afford to eat all that many desserts—but being cooped up inside with nothing productive to do gave him a good opportunity to practice.

“You’re going out for that?”

“I’ve already got the crust baking, and everyone’s in school. Even if they weren’t, I wouldn’t want them to take time out just to deliver us fruit. They’re all busy with homework and part-time jobs and, uh . . . ”

“Us?”

“Yeah. I’ll just run out and be back in a few minutes.” It wasn’t like they _never_ went out. Sure, usually they waited to have one of their teammates bring them groceries or whatever they needed, but if it was something quick, they could usually get out and back without any issues.

“Great. I’ll go with you.”

He knew they were both eager for any excuse to get outside without having to be superheroes, and even something as simple as taking a walk with her made his heart rate pick up, but he tried to be sensible. “The oven’s on. Someone should stay here and make sure the place doesn’t burn down.”

Tikki piped up, “I’ll stay,” a little too helpfully. “I know how to turn an oven off if I need to.”

Louis could tell she was still trying to prod him to tell Keva how he felt, but they couldn’t actually go out on a date or anything. Not that Louis would even have the courage to ask her. “All right. We’ll be quick.”

Since he didn’t think Plagg would be much use at preventing a catastrophe and he figured one of them should be able to transform if they needed to, he put on his jacket so Plagg could hide in the pocket.

Keva started telling him about the book she’d been reading, and her scathing commentary was so engrossing and funny that they were already outside and halfway down the block before he felt Plagg poking him in the chest. When Louis looked down, Plagg said, “Aren’t you forgetting something, lover boy?”

Louis blinked, distracted enough by Plagg’s name-calling that it took him a second to realize the sun was brighter than it should have been. “Oh, right!”

Keva laughed and waited while he ran back upstairs to get his hat and sunglasses—not that anyone had even come close to recognizing how much he looked like his father yet. It probably would have been smarter for him to just send her to get the strawberries while he tended the kitchen, but he was picky about his fruit, and he couldn’t quite make himself give up a chance to go for a walk with her.

He spent the whole brief trip to the store trying to get up the nerve to touch her hand, but he never did.

#

An e-mail notification interrupted Gabriel’s work. The e-mail was from the investigator he’d assigned to stake out the apartment building he’d seen Ladybird and Black Tom enter—and to take photographs of everyone entering and exiting the building.

Gabriel immediately set aside what he’d been doing and downloaded the file onto his workstation, then cycled through the photos. The investigator had done her job well. The photos were clear and included both close-ups and full body shots. There were dozens of them, but most could be discounted quickly because the subjects were too obviously the wrong age or body type to be the heroes.

He cycled through the photos, but his hand paused when he came to a photo of a couple who had the right general build and appearance. He tapped to the next photo to see the close-up of the man and froze.

Those eyes. Emilie’s eyes.

The truth of what he was seeing sank in. “Louis.”

The next photo was a close-up of the woman. Brown skin, hair with a faint ruddy tint, and a face that bore more than a passing resemblance to Adrien’s friend Nino. Gabriel recalled how Ladybird had reacted so strongly during the Timejumper fight when Carapace and Rena Rouge had been taken out.

“So that’s it,” Gabriel murmured, a plot already forming in his mind. “I see.”


	113. Chapter 113

Although the party was ostensibly for Nathalie and Sebastien, the kids soon became distracted with their own game of . . . something involving twenty-sided dice . . . and Nathalie was left observing from the kitchen table. Not that she minded. The fact that they made the effort at all was actually quite touching, especially since most of them hardly even knew her. They were good kids, though. She’d been here long enough to tell that much.

The six of them were gathered around the coffee table, most of them sitting on the furniture with Nino on the floor in front of the TV, laughing and making up some kind of group story. Geneviève had been here for dinner but had gone upstairs to take a nap half an hour ago, so the kids had the babies down here with them. The twins were in a bassinet, Marinette and Alya were holding their infants, and Adrien had been holding his little brother for an hour already. Despite all the talking, Sebastien was content to sleep in Adrien’s arms; maybe he was as exhausted from the past few days as Nathalie was.

She got up from the table and went over to where the kids were gathered. “Can I get anyone a refill?” She picked up the closest empty cups from the coffee table.

“Oh, I can get that!” Nino said, moving to get up.

Nathalie said, “It’s fine, Nino. Thank you, but it relaxes me to see you all enjoying yourselves. Besides, it’s been days since I’ve felt useful.”

“You just had a baby,” Alya pointed out.

“Three days ago,” Nathalie said. From the looks on their faces, they still didn’t understand her, but they believed her enough to let her go. She walked to the kitchen, careful not to show any signs of discomfort. The truth was, she was very tired and sore, and she wanted to go to bed, but there really was something she needed to do.

She refilled the cups with lemonade from the fridge, returned them to the coffee table, and picked up two more to refill. In the kitchen, after she refilled these two, she glanced across the large room to make sure that no one was looking her way, then surreptitiously laced the drinks with Benadryl. It wasn’t anything that should cause anyone any harm, but it was enough to cause significant drowsiness within about an hour.

Going back to the group, she set the cups down in front of Alya and Nino. “Does anyone need anything else?”

“If we do, we can get it ourselves,” Adrien said. “Please, Nathalie, sit down.”

She smiled. “What is this game you’re playing?”

Nathaniel got out of the armchair to offer his seat, which she took, and they briefly explained the concept of the game. Then she sat quietly and watched them continue to play.

As the hour crept forward, she saw Nino and Alya begin to droop. First, he moved over to sit with his back against the couch, then he leaned his head back on the cushion. Alya began to nod off, sinking into the couch.

Alix took Keva from her before the child could fall. “We’re losing these two.”

Adrien checked the clock on his phone. “It is after ten. Maybe we should all head to bed.”

“We might as well,” said Marinette, “since our cleric and barbarian got hit by a sleeping spell.” She had no idea how close she was to the truth.

They wrapped things up and got to their feet. When Marinette touched Alya’s shoulder to shake her awake, Nathalie intervened. “You might as well let them sleep. They’ll wake up and go to bed eventually.” She got up and took Sebastien from Adrien.

“I guess you’re right,” said Adrien. “If we all go up at the same time, someone’s got to wait for the bathroom anyway.”

Nathalie went upstairs with the others to put Sebastien to bed and check in with her mother, grateful that Geneviève was there to attend Sebastien at night so Nathalie could get rest. Then she went downstairs and got ready for bed herself.

When that was done and she was dressed in her pajamas and robe, Nathalie walked through the darkened ground floor. She didn’t hear movement from the stairs, and no lights were on. The kids were likely all in their rooms for the night.

As quietly as she could, Nathalie made her way to the couch, where Alya and Nino still slept—soundly enough that they didn’t stir as she slipped the fox pendant from around Alya’s neck and the turtle bracelet from Nino’s wrist.

Two hidden kwamis barely had time to peek out, see what was happening, and try to speak before they were sucked into the Miraculouses, where they would stay until Hawk Moth awakened them.

#

Marinette was in the nursery with Alix, the two of them doing their morning pumping and nursing, when the door burst open.

“Marinette!” Alya ran into the room.

Nino was right behind her. “Marin—Ah!” He slammed his eyes shut and jerked back so hard, he tripped, smacked himself into the wall, stumbled against the changing table, and thumped onto the floor.

Between being startled by their entrance and then busting up laughing at Nino, Marinette forgot to even cover herself. Mid-laugh, she looked up at Alya, who had a very serious expression on her face and two huge, wet patches all the way down her shirt, and started laughing again. “Your shirt’s wet,” she told Alya, pointing at her.

“Screw my shirt!” Alya snapped. “Marinette, we’ve got a serious problem!”

Her tone sobered Marinette enough to toss a blanket over herself, but Alix was still fighting to control her laughter. The twins were not happy with the way their breakfast kept violently shaking out of their reach.

Alya grabbed Marinette by the shoulders. “My Miraculous is missing! So is Trixx!”

“What?!” Marinette had never unhooked the pump from herself so fast. Nino was still getting to his feet by the time she’d thrown a shirt on.

Pollen, who’d been in Louis’s crib, keeping him entertained, buzzed over in agitation. “Missing? What do you mean?”

“I woke up and they were gone!” Alya cried.

Nino had a hand over his face. “Mine and Wayzz are gone, too!”

“What do you mean _gone_?!” Marinette demanded.

Alya threw her arms wide. “We fell asleep downstairs, and when we woke up, they were gone. And before you ask, yes, we looked under the couch and in the cushions. They’re not there.”

Marinette paled. “You mean they were stolen?”

“Was the front door locked?” Alix asked. She wasn’t laughing anymore.

“Yeah.” Nino took his hand away from his eyes to answer her, but looked up at the ceiling as soon as he realized she was still topless. “Can we talk about this somewhere else?”

“Yeah, we should,” Marinette said. “Geneviève went down for coffee, but she’ll probably be back soon. Let’s go upstairs to our room.” The general rule was that the bedrooms were the private sanctuaries of their occupants, but exceptions were made for emergencies.

“I’ll get Adrien and Nathaniel.” Nino bolted out.

Marinette helped Alix get the twins back into their cribs and made sure the babies would be okay until Geneviève got back while Alya went upstairs to change her shirt before the rest of them got there.

Once the six of them were assembled in the girls’ room, Adrien asked, “What’s this about?”

“Alya’s and Nino’s Miraculouses are missing,” Marinette said, “and so are Trixx and Wayzz.”

That pretty much got Adrien and Nathaniel up to speed with the rest of them, panic-wise. Even the three remaining kwamis started babbling questions and worries.

Marinette held up her hand for quiet. “We’ll check again downstairs, but it’s possible they were stolen.”

Alya and Nino described how they’d woken up downstairs, discovered the problem, and frantically searched the area before running to tell Marinette.

“But if the door was locked, how could they have been stolen?” asked Nathaniel. “Was there a break-in?”

Alya shook her head. “Not that we could see.”

“There are all kinds of ways one of Hawk Moth’s villains could have stolen them,” Adrien pointed out. “Teleportation, turning into a vapor, shrinking small enough to fit through the keyhole, the magical ability to unlock doors . . . ”

Marinette nodded. “Nathaniel, when you were Evillustrator, you got into my top floor bedroom by _erasing_ the window.”

He rubbed the back of his neck and murmured, “Sorry. I don’t really remember that.”

“Are we thinking it was Hawk Moth, then?” Nino asked in a low, angry tone.

They all considered that, exchanging glances with furrowed brows.

Finally, Alya asked, “Who else would it have been? He must have figured out our identities like he’d figured out Adrien’s and Marinette’s and sent a supervillain after us.”

That idea made more sense than Marinette wanted it to. “He had also learned where Adrien and I lived at the time and sent a supervillain to us at night. The only reason he didn’t get our Miraculouses then must be that Dark Owl didn’t cooperate.”

Alix clenched her fists. “You mean a supervillain came into our home, where our kids are?”

Nathaniel pulled at his bangs. “I’m sorry, Alix. I should have thought of the danger in bringing you and the boys here—”

“Don’t!” she snapped, startling all of them. “That’s not what I meant, Nath. I don’t want to grab the twins and run. What I meant was”—she turned her attention to Marinette—“can I have a Miraculous now or what? I feel fine.”

Marinette took a deep breath as she considered it. It still hadn’t been that long since Alix had come home, but she seemed well enough, and Marinette wasn’t sure she’d take ‘no’ for an answer. “Probably, but it’s not entirely my call. How long do we have before school?”

Adrien checked his phone. “Forty-five minutes.”

_That should be enough time._ “Adrien, you come with me. The rest of you, search for the missing Miraculouses some more, just to be sure, and look for any signs of a break-in—physical or magical—anywhere in the house.”

“You know,” said Adrien, “if it was Hawk Moth, there is a silver lining.”

The others were confused by his words, but Marinette nodded. “If one of his villains got in here during the night and only took Alya’s and Nino’s Miraculouses, it means he hasn’t figured out that we have two new ones _or_ Nathaniel’s identity.”

“So, are we going where I think we’re going, Milady?”

“Yep.” She didn’t explain it to the others.

Half an hour later, they returned with three small boxes. Marinette knew they were past the time for carefully matching Miraculouses to specific people. Right now, they just needed all six of them to be armed and prepared. While Adrien kept Nathalie and Geneviève busy downstairs, Marinette talked to the others in the nursery.

With Nathaniel standing by so that he knew what the new assignments were, Marinette handed a Miraculous box to each of the others.

“Is it safe to give us these?” Alya asked.

“I believe so. Obviously, if Hawk Moth was the one who took Trixx and Wayzz without coming for Pollen and Orikko, he doesn’t think Adrien and I got new Miraculouses, which means there’s no reason for him to think you will. But we’ll keep you two in reserve like us just in case, and only use you for anything more than comm support if we really need to.” She nodded to Alix. “Which means we’ll probably need you for actual fighting. You sure you’re up for it?”

“Definitely!” Alix opened her box to find the Mouse Miraculous. As she lifted the necklace from the box, Mullo appeared and greeted her.

“Sorry it’s not the Rabbit,” Marinette said, “but if we give you that one, Nathaniel will have to break in a new one.”

“I’m okay with that,” said Nathaniel. “I actually felt better with the Rooster.”

“Which would mean Adrien would have to break in a new one.” Marinette flapped her hand in the air like it might actually clear anything up. “Let’s keep things how they are for now. Things are already getting complicated enough to be confusing. I chose the mouse for you, Alix, because I’ve used it myself, so I’m familiar with how it works. That’ll make it easier for me to strategize with it and to give you advice if you need it.”

Nino and Alya opened their boxes to find the Ox and Pig Miraculouses.

“A nose ring?” Nino asked dubiously.

“I picked it because it’s small, so you can hide it easily and only put it on when you need to transform,” Marinette explained. “And Alya, yours is an anklet, so you can keep it on your ankle and hide it with your pants. You shouldn’t be seen wearing any new jewelry or Hawk Moth might figure out what happened.”

Alya, Nino, and Alix introduced themselves to their new kwamis, and Pollen and Fluff smashed into their fellows like some kind of mid-air kwami mosh pit, all of them chattering with excitement—as well as worry for their missing compatriots.

Marinette put her hands on her hips and let out a breath. “We’re starting to run low on Miraculouses. Let’s all try to not get any more stolen.”

Nathaniel checked the time. “Are we going to school?”

“Yeah,” Marinette answered. “We’d better hurry. But afterward, we’re having a full team meeting.”


	114. Chapter 114

Louis was putting the clean dishes away when his phone beeped. He set the plates down, got his phone, and saw a text from Max.

_Incoming!_

“Claws out!” he said half a second before a portal opened on the far side of the living room.

Pegasus was the first one through. He was followed by Marinette.

Black Tom rushed over. “What’s going on?”

“I’ll explain in a minute,” Marinette said, “once everyone’s here.”

“Everyone?”

More people came through the portal. Kim, Nino, Luka . . . and Alix.

Surprised to see her, Black Tom blurted, “A—” but Nathaniel elbowed him on his way past, and Black Tom immediately corrected himself. “Who are you?” More people came through, but Black Tom was still distracted by Alix. She was absolutely tiny. She definitely wasn’t this short in his time.

“I’m Alix,” she said. “So you’re Black Tom, huh?” Her gaze was sharp and curious.

“Uh, yeah. Are you a new team member?” It was the only explanation for her being here that he could think of.

Marinette put a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll explain. Where’s Ladybird?”

“Oh, right!” He needed to warn Keva to transform before she wandered into the room and got spotted. ( _She should get spotted before she comes into the room. Heh._ ) He hopped over to the bathroom door and knocked. “Uh, Ladybird? We have guests.”

“I can hear them,” she answered. “Out in a sec.”

The living room was so crowded, there was nowhere for Black Tom to go, so he edged over to the kitchen, where Kim was helping Max rustle up some food for Kaalki. The apartment was small enough that the kitchen area was crowded even with three people, but Black Tom tried to stay out of the way.

While Max searched the fridge, Kaalki floated nearby, arguing with a small, hovering robot.

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Black Tom said, pointing at the robot. “What’s that?” He’d seen the little robot at their team meetings before, but it had never been the right time to ask. Besides, it wasn’t that strange to see Max with unusual technology. “Is it some kind of mechanical kwami?”

The robot broke off arguing with Kaalki to zip right up into Black Tom’s face. “I am _not_ a kwami!” It sounded genuinely offended. “I am Markov, an extremely sophisticated technological being.”

Max laid out a piece of bread, and Kaalki eagerly started nibbling. “Markov’s my best friend,” he told Black Tom. “I invented him. But I bet lots of people have robot friends in the future.”

Black Tom couldn’t help smiling at that. “Not exactly. Though I do know one person who has one.” In his time, Markov was an android with his own android wife, a pet robot dog, and a job at Max’s tech lab. He’d heard that Markov had gone through several upgrades over the years, but he’d never heard details. He still wasn’t sure if this Markov was the same ‘being’ as the Markov from his time, but if Markov really was Max’s best friend even now, he hoped so.

Ladybird came out of the bathroom, and they all gathered in the living room. There weren’t nearly enough places to sit, so most of the guys ended up sitting on the floor. Only once they were all seated did Black Tom notice that his teammates weren’t the only people present.

“Um, I get that this is a team meeting,” he said, “but why did you bring babies?”

The couch was occupied by Marinette, Alya, Alix, and Nathaniel, who were each holding a baby.

“We left from school,” Marinette explained. “We wanted to be extra cautious, so it was easier to tell Geneviève that we were going to hang out for a while before we came home.”

“Oh. Okay.” Black Tom was still a little weirded out by the presence of his own infant self, but he remembered to at least pretend to not know who the two red-haired babies were. “Are they, uh, twins?”

Nathaniel smirked at him and the little show they had to put on. “Yeah. This is Aleron, and that’s Daniel.”

Ladybird squealed and leaned across from her seat in the armchair. “They’re so cute!”

Black Tom’s dad was sitting beside him on the floor. While Ladybird admired the babies, Adrien leaned closer and said, “No holding any of them for you this time, Clawsy McScratchyhands.”

Black Tom flushed, curled his hands up to hide his claws, and nervously glanced over to see how angry Adrien actually was.

To his relief, Adrien was wearing his mock-angry frown instead of his actually-angry frown.

“I’m really sorry about that,” Black Tom said anyway.

Adrien’s expression softened. “I know. Just be careful.”

“I will.”

From the other side of the sort-of circle, Alya asked, “How have you two been getting by here?”

Before either of them could answer, Kim asked, “You’re not getting my furniture gross, are you?”

“Gross?” Black Tom asked, perplexed. “What do you mean—”

“Entertaining yourselves?” Kim waggled his eyebrows.

In an instant, Black Tom felt like his face had been lit on fire. “H-hey! What are you suggesting?!”

Xuppu made wet kissing noises.

“You’re not helping!” Black Tom snapped at the monkey kwami.

“Wow,” said Nino. “I’ve never seen an adult blush that hard.”

Alya laughed, Nathaniel tried badly to hide a smile, and Luka chuckled into his hand.

Marinette rolled her eyes, and Pollen told Xuppu, “You’ve always been a bad influence on your owners.”

“So uncouth,” Kaalki agreed.

Black Tom couldn’t even bring himself to look at Ladybird to see how she’d taken it, but he could guess. In a low mutter, he asked his dad, “Ladybird thinks it’s funny, doesn’t she?”

At least his dad appeared sympathetically uncomfortable rather than amused at his expense. “Yeah, looks that way, though she is a little pink, too.”

This was a weird and embarrassing situation no matter how Black Tom looked at it. On the one hand, they were a bunch of people he’d looked up to as mentors and authority figures for his entire life. On the other hand, they were a bunch of highschoolers in their mid-teens while he was a full-grown adult about to graduate from college.

He sat up straight, put on his most stern, grown-up expression, and pretended he was talking to his younger siblings. “All right, _kids_ , very mature. Can we get on with the meeting?”

“Yes, lets,” said Marinette. She adjusted her hold on baby Louis, who was starting to squirm. “The first thing—” Louis suddenly flopped to one side, and she had to catch him.

Ladybird held her arms out. “Want me to hold him while you talk?”

“Okay, thanks. I’m not sure why he’s fussing.” Marinette carefully passed him to her.

“Aw, calm down, Little Bun,” Ladybird cooed at him as she sat back in the armchair, holding Louis close.

“How do you know we call him that?” Adrien asked.

Ladybird’s expression froze.

Alya said, “I probably called him that when we were over the other day. Right?”

Ladybird smiled nervously. “Right.”

Black Tom eyed his aunt, but she carried on as if nothing were strange. _Does she . . . ?_

Marinette stood to address the group. “Okay, first—Alix is on the team now. Alix, this is Ladybird and Black Tom. I already told you how we got them. Ladybird and Black Tom, this is Alix. She’s in our class and one of our friends, so she’s totally cool. We’ve actually met a future version of her using the Rabbit Miraculous, so I knew she could be trusted with one. We’re not going to get into the timeline repercussions of that information, but long story short, I gave her the Mouse Miraculous for now, so we don’t have to do any more switching around than necessary.

“Next,” Marinette continued, “we have to tell you about the problem we had this morning.” She related how Nino’s and Alya’s Miraculouses were missing and presumed stolen, and how she’d given them new ones. “None of them have actually transformed yet, so maybe we can take a sec for them to introduce their new superhero selves.”

Alix and Alya passed Daniel and Keva over to Max and Adrien to hold for them, then they and Nino transformed, introducing themselves as Minimouse, Oxenfree, and Trufflehunter. (“The truffles are the scoops,” she explained. Which seemed like a bit of a stretch, but Black Tom was just glad _he_ didn’t get the Pig Miraculous.)

Once the three of them detransformed and sat back down, Marinette explained how only Alix would be joining the first string, and now there’d be four of them staying in reserve to try to keep Hawk Moth from examining them too closely unless they were really needed. There was a little bit of disagreement about this plan, and while they worked through it, Black Tom got distracted when he looked over to see Ladybird holding baby Louis.

She’d gotten baby Louis calmed down, and now he was lying on her chest as she cuddled him, whispered to him, and kissed the top of his head. Something inside Black Tom’s chest tightened, and he forgot how to breathe. At first, he was unbearably jealous of his younger self. Then, his brain couldn’t help casting baby Louis in the role of his own son. No, _their_ son. And his chest hurt so badly with wanting to confess his love and beg her to marry him, he almost couldn’t hold it in.

Beside him, Adrien whispered softly, “Does she know how you feel?”

Black Tom felt himself blushing lightly but couldn’t tear his eyes away from Ladybird. “N-no. She’s—she only sees me as a friend.”

“Sometimes the line between friendship and love is a lot blurrier than we think. She may have crossed it without you knowing.”

Surprise made him finally meet Adrien’s eyes. “My dad said something like that to me once.”

“He sounds smart. You should listen to him.”

Black Tom huffed a laugh. “Yeah. Maybe I should.”

#

It took way longer than it really should have to talk everyone through the current situation. People had to keep making jokes and getting off-topic. Or they’d start recounting some encounter with a villain, and that ended up leading into a whole side discussion. Marinette lost count of how many times she’d had to keep pulling the discussion back on track. Some of the others helped, but all of them were guilty of getting off-topic, even her. And with eleven team members and nine kwamis offering input (though the kwamis didn’t talk as much as the people), they basically spent more time off-topic than on.

The presence of four infants didn’t help. Even though they’d all been fed and changed before leaving school, as time wore on, they needed those things again. At least Marinette was able to deter Alix from feeding the kids in front of everyone. The boys were understandably nervous about it, and Marinette didn’t want to make anyone more uncomfortable than they had to be right now, especially with Ladybird and Black Tom—who had only just met Alix—in the room. Which meant that they had to take a break while the babies were fed and changed. When Louis got hungry, Alya offered to feed him before Marinette had to decide whether to try it herself or not. As Alya took him and Keva into the bedroom, Black Tom covered his reddening face with his hands, which was . . . a weird reaction. Wondering if something about the idea of a girl breastfeeding another girl’s baby made him uncomfortable, Marinette awkwardly explained the situation (she’d accepted her weakness in this area and wasn’t that embarrassed about it anymore), but that only made him more uncomfortable, so she dropped the topic.

It was a good thing it was Friday night; they could stay out much later without Nathalie or Geneviève wondering why they weren’t home yet. After the first couple hours, they ordered several pizzas, and Ladybird made a salad to go with them. In the end, before the meeting adjourned and they decided to stick around and watch a movie, the group did come to some observations and conclusions.

First, Hawk Moth had most likely stolen two of their Miraculouses, which meant that four (counting his and Mayura’s) were now in his possession.

Second, he’d found out some of their identities and where they lived, and they didn’t know how. Most likely, he was someone with money and/or connections, which made him potentially more dangerous even without superpowers than they’d thought.

Third, since they didn’t know how he was finding them out, there was a strong possibility that he would be able to figure out more of them and maybe even steal more Miraculouses.

Fourth, given all of the above, they couldn’t afford to stay defensive and reactive. They needed to find a way to take the fight to him.

Fifth, he almost never left his lair—and on the one occasion he had fought them directly, during the Heroes’ Day Scarlet Moth attack, it had been on _his_ terms, when he felt like he had the advantage of overwhelming strength. And he’d still used an illusion to try to sneak up on the heroes. And when Ladybug and Cat Noir had fought him directly, he had mostly defeated them; it had taken a team of five heroes to beat him.

They needed to act first and launch an attack, but they had no idea who Hawk Moth was, where he was, or how to lure him out with any kind of safety. In other words, they had no earthly idea what to do next.

Okay, so maybe it hadn’t been the most productive meeting ever conducted.

In the end, the only thing they were able to decide was that they all should give it some thought and see if any of them could come up with a plan that was even sort of workable.

But when not a single person got akumatized for the next two weeks, instead of making them grateful for the break, it only increased their collective sense of unease as they waited for his next move.


	115. Chapter 115

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know when you wake up in the morning and the whole world outside is apocalypse-red? It's a 2020 kind of day.

“What do you think everyone’s doing back home?” Louis asked Keva as they sat on the couch. They’d just finished lunch, and Keva was scrolling through Netflix to find something they wanted to watch but hadn’t seen yet. It hadn’t been all Netflix all the time, of course. They were running around as Ladybird and Black Tom even more than before, filling time with public appearances—mostly charity work of one form or another—while they waited for Hawk Moth to do something.

Keva raised an eyebrow at him. “There is no ‘back home’, Louis. Not yet.”

Louis frowned. “Right.” It was weird to think that their home didn’t really exist—not yet. The friends they knew were too young to speak, their younger siblings weren’t even a thought, and their parents were still going through puberty. And if they somehow screwed something up, the home that _would_ exist for them might be altered from what they knew in ways they wouldn’t like. He’d already given himself a scar to prove it.

He couldn’t think about it too much, or it made him feel untethered and panicked, like he was in the middle of the ocean on a tiny boat in a storm that threatened to capsize him at any moment.

So he pushed the thought aside and looked at the listings she was scrolling through. His phone rang, and he picked it up to talk to his mom. “Hi.”

“How are you two doing?” she asked.

“Fine.”

“Bored?”

“At the moment. We went to a kid’s birthday party this morning.”

Marinette laughed softly. “Have fun?”

“Actually yeah. You’re not upset, are you?”

“Why would I be upset?”

“Well, none of you guys do things like that. I was afraid we were, like, demeaning the superhero calling or something.”

“Not at all. In fact, Adrien took me to a kid’s birthday party when he was courting me.”

“Really?”

“Or I should say, Cat Noir took Ladybug to a birthday party when he was courting her.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s a long story.”

 _What’s this?_ He’d only just found out about his parents’ superhero identities minutes before leaving his time, so he hadn’t exactly been able to find out what parts of their history that he knew about had been de-superhero-ified before reaching him. “I’ve got nothing but time.”

“Maybe later. We’re all going to a concert soon. Wanna come?”

He perked up; he hadn’t been to a concert in months. “Who’s playing?”

“Kitty Section.”

The name sounded very vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t place it. “Who?”

“The band Luka’s in.”

“Oh, right!” His spine straightened suddenly, and Keva gave him a questioning look. He covered the phone and said, “Kitty Section concert.” Her eyes lit up.

Marinette asked, “You’ve heard of them?”

“Uh, I . . . probably shouldn’t say,” Louis answered. In his time, Kitty Section was a pretty obscure piece of history. They’d only put out a couple singles before Luka had gone solo, Juleka’d started modeling full-time, the Bruels had became boring married people with normal jobs, and Rose had opened a little flowers-and-fragrance boutique. Not many people outside Louis’s extended family (and “family”) knew about Kitty Section, aside from hardcore Luka fans. But Louis couldn’t explain any of that to Marinette.

“Right! You’re right!” Marinette sounded like she was talking herself down from her own curiosity. “Anyway, I can text you the address of the park the concert’s in. It’s not a very big event. Just a few amateur bands doing a fundraiser for one of the single parent charities.”

“Sounds great. I don’t suppose we can just come as ourselves?” he asked hopefully. “I could wear my hat.”

He could almost hear her shaking her head. “The whole team’s gonna be there, so it’s too risky.”

He deflated. “I know. I guess we should find a spot in the back so we don’t draw attention away from the bands, then.”

“Sorry,” she said sympathetically.

“Nah, it’s all right. It’ll still be fun.” After he hung up, he asked Keva, “How would you like to see a live Kitty Section concert?”

She jumped to her feet in excitement. “Point the way and I’m there!” She’d always been even more of a fan of Luka’s music than Louis was.

A text with the address came in on his phone. He called for his transformation, then showed the text to her. “Accompany me to the ball, fair lady?”

She transformed. “Let’s get our groove on.”

#

Despite being an amateur concert with high school bands, the show was a lot of fun. People danced and cheered. Ladybird and Black Tom found a shadowed spot on a nearby roof where they had a good view and could enjoy the concert without getting spotted. Everyone was having a wonderful time until the supervillain showed up.

It was during the third set. Kitty Section had already finished, and its members had joined the rest of the crowd to enjoy the other bands, so the whole team except Ladybird and Black Tom was down there, dancing away. That was probably why none of them saw the attack soon enough to react.

From his vantage point on the roof, Black Tom caught a glimpse of something strange and stopped dancing to get a better look. “Is that . . . gas?”

It looked like vapor from dry ice or like the band was using a fog machine, but it wasn’t coming from any machine that he could see. Actually, he couldn’t tell where it was coming from because after the first wisps that had caught his attention, it rolled through the crowd like some kind of gas grenade had been deployed.

Ladybird nearly fell down in surprise. “Whoa! What the—Is that part of the show?”

“There’s way too much of it to be part of the show,” Black Tom said, scanning the crowd. The gas wasn’t so thick that he lost sight of people, so he saw the immediate affect that the gas had on the group.

Most of the crowd, including the band on stage, had simply frozen in place, standing like they’d been dazed. His parents, Alya, Nino, the rest of the team . . . all of them were standing there with blank expressions. Black Tom’s fingers curled around the edge of the roof, muscles tightening to launch himself down there to help. “Come on!”

Ladybird grabbed his arm. “Wait! Is it safe?”

She had a good point. The gas was already dissipating—it had been a single burst, then, and not a steady stream—but there was still enough of it to claim new victims. He studied the scene again. “Look at them.” He pointed at people in the crowd who weren’t frozen. They were scattered throughout the crowd, but they all had something in common. “They’re all younger kids or adults. Only the teenagers are affected by the gas.”

“In that case,” Ladybird said and jumped down to the ground.

Black Tom followed, landing on the grass. Some of the adults he’d spotted were wandering around with confused, anxious expressions.

A guy about his age came up to him, leading a younger boy by the hand. “What’s going on?” he asked Black Tom. “What happened to everyone?”

Black Tom pointed to the nearest escape route. “We’ll figure it out. Get away from the area.”

Just as he and Ladybird began shouting at anyone nearby who wasn’t standing in a dazed stupor that they should get to safety, a shape rose up from behind the stage: a man in a dark orange costume with a bunch of metal tentacles protruding from his back. He was using the tentacles as stilts to move around above the crowd.

Ladybird and Black Tom broke off to confront the villain. “Hey, you! Discount Doctor Octopus!” Black Tom taunted. “You got something against music?”

The villain turned in the air to look down at him. “I am not Doctor Octopus. I am Enforcer. And these children need to listen to their elders.” He stepped toward Black Tom, using those tentacle leg things. The end of one of them came down in the midst of the crowd, shooting past Adrien’s head close enough to rustle his hair.

Black Tom had zero interest in Enforcer’s motives. “Cataclysm!” He leapt at the nearest metal tentacle, but it retracted out of his reach at amazing speed, and Black Tom nearly landed Cataclysm-first on one of the dazed teens. He had to twist to avoid both the teen and the ground (it wouldn’t really help the situation to create giant sinkhole underneath everyone) and barely managed to spend his Cataclysm on a dropped drink bottle. _Okay, new plan._ He ran over to Ladybird and asked her, “Can you keep this guy busy? I’ve got to get Dad out of here, then I think I can work on the others.”

Even though he knew he hadn’t worded his intention very clearly, Ladybird nodded. “Do what you need to. Lucky Charm!”

As she used her new paintball gun to get Enforcer’s attention, Black Tom weaved through the unmoving crowd to where his parents were standing. Ignoring his mom for the time being, Black Tom hoisted Adrien over his shoulder and ran for the nearest building. The gas hadn’t made Adrien go stiff as a statue, but he didn’t ragdoll either, so it wasn’t too hard to move him. Most of the non-immobile bystanders had vacated the area by now, so Black Tom was able to find an empty alley pretty quickly. He set Adrien on his feet and whispered, “Orikko!”

The rooster kwami emerged from Adrien’s pocket. “What happened?”

“Supervillain’s stun gas or something. It got the whole team except Ladybird and me. Mind if I use your power?”

“Of course not!” Orikko said, which was good, since Black Tom was already riffling through Adrien’s pockets.

He found the Rooster Miraculous and slid the strange thumb ring onto his right hand, the one he wasn’t wearing his own Miraculous on. Plagg and Tikki had explained how to do this once, but he’d never thought he would actually need to. “Plagg, Orikko, unify!”

A wave of transformation magic washed over him. When it had passed, he glanced down to find the green palms of his suit had turned orange, and there were a few other orange and red decorative stripes over the solid black. There was no time for more inspection than that, though. The power surge thrumming through his chest was invigorating, like a shot of espresso directly into the bloodstream.

He held up his right hand and said, “Wake Up Call!” Glowing energy the color of a dawn sky surrounded his hand, and he pressed his palm to Adrien’s chest.

Adrien gasped sharply, like someone woken suddenly from a deep sleep, and full awareness returned to his eyes. “What—Who—” He blinked and gawked at Black Tom, who didn’t exactly look like his normal self at the moment. “Who are—Black Tom?”

Black Tom—he supposed he could have called himself TomCock now, but he decided not to confuse things unnecessarily—nodded. “Sorry, I had to borrow your Miraculous. A supervillain crashed the concert and set off some kind of gas bomb that took control of all the teenagers.”

Adrien paled. “Mind-control gas?”

Black Tom had to put a hand on Adrien’s shoulder to stop him from running back to the crowd. Belatedly, Black Tom realized that people like his dad had been significantly traumatized by mind-control gas once already. “They’re just standing there! Like statues!”

That calmed Adrien a little, but not all the way. “So Marinette and the others are stuck out there?”

“Ladybird’s keeping the villain busy. You stay here. The gas has probably dissipated enough by now that I can wake the others up, but I’m the only one who can use that ability quickly enough, without needing to recharge.”

“Are you sure you don’t need help?” Adrien asked, worried.

“I don’t think this guy’s actually that tough, though he is quick had has a lot of reach. Once I get more of the team free, it should be a piece of cake.”

Adrien took him at his word. “All right. Hurry!”

Leaving his dad in the alley, Black Tom raced back to the crowd in the park, summoning another Wake Up Call as he ran. Thanks to being an adult, he could use it over and over again without worrying about a time limit or running out of energy. He used the power on the first person he came to on the edge of the crowd. It was a girl he didn’t know, but that was okay. If he _only_ woke up his teammates, that would be kind of a giveaway when they started joining the fight. By waking up a bunch of bystanders as well, he could disguise his teammates’ identities.

The girl gasped awake and looked around in confusion, quickly frightened by what she saw. “What’s happening?”

“Supervillain,” Black Tom told her. “Run that way. We’re taking care of it.”

The girl didn’t argue, and Black Tom made his way through the crowd, waking up a few more people before he got to his first teammate.

When Max woke, Black Tom didn’t pause to explain. He just pointed to the alley where Adrien was hiding and said, “Go that way.” Either Max recognized him despite the different costume or he was just used to making quick decisions when a supervillain was attacking. He took off without a word.

With a glance upward, Black Tom saw that Ladybird still had Enforcer’s full attention, so he raced to find Marinette as quickly as he could. As soon as he’d woken her, she said, “Black Tom? You’re using the Rooster too?”

“Had to,” he said.

“Be careful. You know never to use more than two, right? If you use too many—”

“I know. Too much power. Tikki explained it.”

Reassured on that point, Marinette glanced around the crowd, her mind working fast enough to comprehend the situation even if she didn’t have all the details. “The others?”

“Working on it.” He nodded back toward the alley. “Head that way for now.”

“Got it.” She took off.

Black Tom woke a few more people before finding Luka. By the time Luka was on his way, Pegasus had joined the fight against Enforcer. That gave Ladybird time to break away and reorient herself. She landed beside Black Tom. “Nice outfit.”

His body was still humming with new energy, and he could tell that Enforcer wasn’t that dangerous a villain, so he gave her a quick pose. One which displayed the tail long tail feathers which his subconscious had apparently thought this costume needed. “Admiring my plumage, Ladybird?”

She eyed him up and down, then winked at him. “I’m admiring a lot more than that.”

He felt the heat rise to his face, but he didn’t let it win. Maybe it was this strange power, energy, and strength he had from using two Miraculouses simultaneously, but he felt like he could do anything. “I’d say, ‘Look but don’t touch,’ but . . . feel free to touch.”

Ladybird chuckled. “Maybe later, Kitten. Right now, I think you have more people to wake up.”

She leapt away toward Enforcer, leaving Black Tom momentarily basking in some new type of high. He’d given back to her without breaking down in embarrassment. Not enough to make her blush like he wanted, but for once he felt like he could keep pushing. And there was a warm, fuzzy feeling in his chest as he replayed her calling him ‘Kitten’. It was the nickname Plagg used for him, but when she said it, he liked it better.

One of Enforcer’s metal tentacles swung too wildly, knocking over one of the nearby dazed bystanders. Black Tom had to leap to catch him before the guy faceplanted on the grass, and he woke him up while he was at it.

Black Tom started jumping around, giving people a nice wake up pat right and left. Pretty soon, Ladybird, Pegasus, Viperion, King Monkey, and even Minimouse were all engaging Enforcer, but the presence of so many innocents made things tricky. Not to mention the gas grenades that Enforcer kept chucking, which the heroes had to catch before they hit the ground so they didn’t go off. Enforcer eventually saw what Black Tom was doing and took issue with it, using his metal tentacles to try to smack him down, which made Black Tom’s acrobatics all the more exciting. It was extremely tempting to try to Cataclysm one of Enforcer’s tentacles, since they were coming so close, but he tried that twice and had two near-misses. Bouncing around, dodging people and tentacles, with destruction in one hand and liberation in the other made it way too easy to get the two confused. If getting Cataclysmed sucked for a superhero, he really didn’t want to subject a regular person to it, and he’d almost done so—avoiding it only with some quick intervention by his teammates. So instead, he left the fighting to the rest of them while he kept waking people up and hurrying them out of harm’s way.

As he worked, the crowd gradually thinned, which made moving around and fighting easier on everyone. The gaps between dazed people got bigger, which made it less likely that Enforcer would accidentally step on one. So the longer it went on, the easier the fight got, and Black Tom went back to thinking up something he could say to Ladybird while he still felt nearly invincible—because he was sure that as soon as everything calmed down and he detransformed, he’d be at her mercy once again.

At some point, the band who’d been on stage when the attack began—and who Black Tom had already woken up—got cheeky and started playing again.

Yeah, it made things harder for the heroes who had to keep Enforcer from smashing up the stage in his anger, but who didn’t want to fight a supervillain to a live rock soundtrack?

Black Tom heard a clash overhead and looked up to see Ladybird falling through the air. He leapt up, caught her in his arms, and landed lightly before setting her on her feet. As the beat thumped around them in time to the thumps of fists on bodies, he asked her, “May I have this dance?”

She laughed. “Only if you can keep up with me.”

And somehow, amidst everything, they danced.

It may not have been a traditional dance, but the way they fought the supervillain and evacuated bystanders sure felt like a dance. They moved in sync more than they ever had before, bounding together and apart, using their clasped hands to boost Ladybird into the air for a strike before breaking so Black Tom could slide under a tentacle attack. It probably should have been frightening, what with the angry supervillain trying hard to hurt them all, but Black Tom couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so exhilarated.

The next time Ladybird dropped into his arms, he didn’t set her down so quickly. “Falling for me again, Ladybird?”

She didn’t try to get down. “As many times as it takes.”

He didn’t understand what she meant, but the ball was in his court, and he was determined not to let her win this time. His arms behind her back and under her knees tightened, pulling her in closer against him. His lips curled in a cocky grin. “If you’re trying to seduce me, it’s already worked.”

“Oh?” That was all she could come up with as her face reddened a little.

 _I’m winning. Push harder. I’m almost there!_ “I’ve been yours for years, my lovely. You only need to ask.” _No, that’s not teasing; that’s the truth! And ‘my lovely’? How cheesy can I get?_

But even as part of his brain freaked out, the part of him that was still brimming with superpower energy and unwarranted confidence kept grinning at the woman in his arms.

Who, he was surprised to find, neither blushed harder nor seemed uncomfortable at his words. Instead, she laughed in exasperation and said, “I’ve been asking for ages, you idiot.” Then she grabbed him by the head and kissed him.

For a moment, Black Tom thought he might just explode. His heart had already been working hard from the supervillain fight, but the entirely unexpected sensation of the woman he loved kissing him as if she were trying to make a point threatened to kill him outright.

His brain, of course, was a total loss. That short-circuited instantly, like a computer dropped in a bathtub.

Unfortunately, his body didn’t work very well without his brain, and he accidentally dropped Ladybird onto her butt. He gaped down at her, his face flaming, and said, “Why did you taste me?!” No, that was not the right word. _Stupid mouth!_ There hadn’t been nearly enough tongue involvement to qualify as tasting.

(Regrettably.)

But she was used to him getting his wires crossed when surprised. Ladybird got up, dusted off her rear, and said, “I was never joking, pretty boy. I meant every word.”

 _Every word . . . ?_ All the teasing. All the nicknames. All the pressing up against him. It hadn’t just been to laugh at how flustered he got? “You . . . you . . . like me?”

She wrapped her hands around his neck. “We’re not kids, Kitten. I don’t _like_ you. I love you.”

He had to be dreaming—but everything felt too real. More real than real. So sharp. So alive. He wrapped his hands around her waist. “I love you, too. I have for a long time.” His voice was soft and earnest, all trace of teasing gone. It had never been a game after all.

Just when he thought they might kiss again, a voice interrupted them.

“If you guys get a moment, maybe you could do something about this akuma.” Minimouse was standing right next to them with her hand on her hip, eyebrow raised in a mixture of amusement and impatience.

They broke apart, both blushing now. Some superheroes they were. Some _adults_ they were, getting distracted by each other while the teen heroes did all the work.

Ladybird spotted the akuma flying away and snatched it with her yo-yo. Once she’d purified it, she found her closest Lucky Charm and tossed it into the air with a shout. Moments later, everything was back to normal and the remaining members of the crowd were awake and wondering what had happened.

“Do you guys want a moment?” Minimouse asked sarcastically.

“Uh, no, we’re okay.” Black Tom rubbed the back of his neck. They _did_ need to talk more, but this definitely wasn’t the time or place.

The heroes dispersed, and they all met up together in the alley where he’d left Adrien.

As soon as Black Tom and Ladybird arrived, they were met by a whole gallery of pleased, smug, amused, and exasperated expressions from their teammates. Those who hadn’t joined the fight had clearly been back here watching everything from a distance. Alya was positively giddy and couldn’t contain several whoops. White Rabbit smiled like the proud uncle he was. Viperion gazed with soft pleasure. Nino was fighting hard between a grin and a scowl.

He was the first to speak. “Not that I’m not happy for you, dudes, but was that really the time?”

Alya smacked his arm.

Ladybird blushed but grabbed Black Tom’s arm and hugged it so that she was practically draped off of him, which made his whole body heat up. “With someone as dense as this boy, you gotta grab the chances you get.”

She backed off enough to let Black Tom say, “Plagg, Orikko, divide.” With a flash of transformation magic, Orikko popped out of the Rooster Miraculous. Black Tom slid it off his finger and gave it back to Adrien.

As he took it, Adrien smiled with such genuine happiness that Black Tom almost thought his dad knew who he really was. “Didn’t I tell you?” Adrien asked softly.

Black Tom couldn’t help smiling back. He was crazy embarrassed right now, but it still wasn’t enough to override his sparkly, life-changing elation. The woman he loved loved him back. He was still processing that. “Yeah.”

Behind them, the concert was already back on a roll, but few of them felt like sticking around. After the stress of the fight, the parents wanted to go check on their babies and the others had their own things to do.

Ladybird and Black Tom went back to their apartment without speaking, but when they reached the living room and dropped their transformation, the air grew heavy with all the things they needed to say.

Plagg, sensitive guy that he was, didn’t give them the chance. “It’s about time! Honestly, you two are worse than your parents!”

“It’s all him,” Keva said. “Neither I nor my parents have any issues expressing our emotions.”

Louis couldn’t help feeling a little offended at that. “You never told me how you felt before now!”

“I did,” she protested. “Over and over.”

“Not clearly! Was it so hard to just say, ‘Hey, Louis, I love you for real.’?”

“And why should I do all the work when anything I _did_ say made you uncomfortable? You’re the guy. I was waiting for you to man up.”

“Man up?” he squealed. Okay, not the manliest reaction he could have had. “You were making me uncomfortable on purpose!”

Even though Keva tried to keep looking serious, a stifled laugh broke out of her. “Yeah. I was. I couldn’t help it. You’re so cute when you’re flustered.”

He blushed at that. Still blushing, after everything. It made him so annoyed, he pouted a little, which also wasn’t helping with his overall manliness rating. “You’re not still teasing me, are you?”

Her expression softened, and she moved closer to him until she was standing in arm’s reach. “About you being cute? Heck, no. You’re absolutely adorable. But, like, sexy-adorable, not baby-adorable.”

He was okay with that. “You think I’m sexy?”

“Well . . . ” she hedged, teasing him again. She didn’t get a chance to finish her thought.

His phone rang. Part of him wanted to not answer it, but the only people who had his number knew that he and Keva needed a minute right now, so it had to be important. He answered it. “Hello?”

It was his mom. He could tell by the panicked breathing.

“Marinette? Are you okay?”

“Louis!” she blurted, and his throat clenched. Then she added, “A-and Keva!”

His heart jumped into overdrive. How had she found out? What had he done? How badly had he screwed up? “Wh-what? How—what did you—”

But his mom’s next words froze him solid with fear. “They’re missing!”

Louis blinked several times, not even really seeing Keva’s expression of worry in front of his face. He gulped and asked in a hoarse voice, “What do you mean?”

Marinette took several more gasping breaths. “Hawk Moth kidnapped our babies!”

Louis looked into Keva’s eyes, needing something to ground him as the world shifted under his feet. “We’ll be right there.”


	116. Chapter 116

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, all. Didn't mean to leave that on a cliffhanger, but the west coast caught fire and the air became unbreathable and things were distracting for a while. (I'm fairly far from the actual flames, but the air is absolutely awful.)

Between Ladybird’s yo-yo and Black Tom’s stick, they raced to his parents’ house so fast they were practically flying. None of the windows happened to be open, so they knocked on the front door.

Nathaniel answered, his face grim. “Come in.” He had one of the twins in his arms, trying to calm the crying baby. “Sorry; the babies are all fussy because of the commotion. Everyone’s kind of freaking out upstairs.”

They followed him to the base of the staircase. No one else was visible in the immediate area. Still, Black Tom spoke softly, leaning closer so Nathaniel could hear him over the baby’s crying. “Hawk Moth really took . . . us?”

“Looks that way.”

“He must have figured out who we are.”

Nathaniel nodded. He was trying to stay stoic, but it was clear he was pretty freaked out himself. “Whatever happens, you still shouldn’t tell the others who you are.”

Black Tom exchanged a look with Ladybird, and they both nodded in agreement. “We have to find a way to handle this without making things worse.”

“They’re upstairs in the nursery,” Nathaniel said. “You know where that is?”

“Oh, yeah.”

The nursery looked nothing like how Black Tom remembered it. All the baby stuff had been long gone by the time he was old enough to form long-term memories, and even the familiar superhero mural which had occupied one whole wall for as long as he could remember hadn’t even been started yet.

Marinette was pacing around, flailing with worry. Alya was trying to calm her down. Adrien and Nino were talking in low, serious voices. As soon as Black Tom and Ladybird entered the room, everyone turned to them. Alya made a strange, loud cry and rushed over, suddenly clinging to Ladybird.

Frozen with surprise, Ladybird raised her eyebrows at Black Tom in a way that asked, _Does she know?_

He could only shrug, as surprised as she was. But he figured Alya probably did know, from some of the ways she’d been acting. If she did, at least it didn’t seem like she’d told any of the others.

Ladybird patted Alya’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Alya. We’ll get them back.”

Black Tom went over to his parents. “Tell us what happened.”

Marinette sputtered out some incoherent words, and Adrien put his arm around her, handing Black Tom a small tablet. “When we got home, the babies were missing, and we found this.”

Alya had let Ladybird go, so Black Tom went back to his partner and watched the video that was queued up.

It was a close-up of Hawk Moth’s face. Black Tom recognized him from all the coverage on the Ladyblog. “Adrien Agreste, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Alya Césaire, and Nino Lahiffe—I’ve taken your children. I know that you four were until recently the thorns in my side known as Ladybug, Cat Noir, Carapace, and Rena Rouge. Don’t worry; I know you no longer have your Miraculouses, so this is not an attempt to ransom your children for them. But I do think that you still have some way to contact the current heroes known as Ladybird and Black Tom. What I want is for you to send them to me. Pegasus should be able to create a portal to these coordinates.” Some numbers were briefly overlaid on the screen. “Tell Ladybird and Black Tom to come here—alone—and I will release your babies unharmed. Should you choose not to obey these instructions to the letter, I cannot guarantee the safety of your infants. You have until four o’clock. You’d better tell your friends not to be late.”

Black Tom swallowed hard. It was three-forty-eight now.

“It’s a trap,” said Ladybird.

Black Tom nodded. “He’s trying to draw us there to get our Miraculouses.”

Nino stepped closer, his fists clenched in anger. “I say we show up and throw everything we’ve got at him. He doesn’t know we have new Miraculouses. We can overwhelm him—”

Alya shook her head. “I’m with you on the sentiment, babe, but we don’t know where he has the babies. He might have them close enough to hurt them before we can even reach him.”

Marinette squeezed her hands together in agitation. “Alya’s right. Even if it is a trap, we can’t risk an all-out assault.”

Black Tom held up his hand. “Back up a sec. How did he even get the babies?”

Marinette was slowly managing to collect herself, shifting from frantic mother to team leader. “After we saw the video, we found Nathalie and asked her if she’d seen Louis and Keva. She said that she’d thought they were upstairs with Geneviève. When we told her neither they nor Geneviève were here, she remembered that her mom had gotten a phone call that had upset her, but she didn’t know what it was about.”

Adrien nodded grimly. “We think that whatever made Geneviève upset allowed Hawk Moth to akumatize her, and he ordered her to bring the babies to him.”

“Even though he just akumatized someone else,” Alya added, “he must have grabbed the opportunity when it came.”

It was a simple plan. “Do you think that’s why he’s been so quiet lately?” asked Black Tom. “He’s been planning this for a while and was waiting for the right opportunity?”

They didn’t respond, but he could tell by their grim faces that they’d already come to the same conclusion.

Marinette shook her head as if trying to deny reality. “This shouldn’t have happened. Hawk Moth shouldn’t have come after us after we gave up our Miraculouses. What kind of monster is he?”

Adrien frowned but stayed silent.

“Where’s the rest of the team?” Ladybird asked.

“On their way,” said Nino. “Nathaniel’s downstairs to let them in, and Alix is keeping Nathalie busy so she doesn’t see a bunch of people show up and start asking questions.”

“We may not have time to wait for everyone,” Black Tom said. He checked the clock on the wall. They only had eight minutes left.

Nathaniel came in, still holding a baby. “Alix is manning the door. Nathalie’s in her room with Sebastien.”

A few seconds later, Luka came in behind him.

Marinette looked around. “We still need Max at least.”

“I’ll try calling him again,” Nino offered and stepped to the side with his phone.

They showed Luka the video. By the end of it, he was scowling with gritted teeth. “He really did that?” He shot a look to Ladybird and Black Tom before asking Marinette, “What do you want to do? Do we attack?”

She shook her head. “If we do, he could hurt the babies.”

“Not if I’m there.”

“I can’t risk it,” she said. “No offense, Luka, but Second Chance isn’t foolproof. Remember, you still ended up getting caught like most of us in the Timejumper fight.”

His mouth tightened into a tense line, but he didn’t argue, conceding the point.

“Who’s to say he won’t hurt the babies anyway?” Alya asked, casting another uncertain look toward Ladybird.

Black Tom exchanged a glance with Nathaniel, who seemed to also find Alya’s behavior suspicious. If she’d figured out who they were, then she knew what they did: if Hawk Moth killed the babies, Ladybird and Black Tom would disappear, and their Miraculouses would be Hawk Moth’s for the taking.

But they couldn’t explain that danger to Marinette and the rest without giving everything away, and they really did need to try to maintain their secrecy as much as possible. “She’s got a good point,” Black Tom said. “You guys know Hawk Moth better than me, but if he could kidnap babies, what assurance do we have that he’ll keep his word and let them go if Ladybird and I show up?”

The answer came, somewhat unexpectedly, from his own dad. “I know Hawk Moth’s a villain, and I know he’s done some awful things, but . . . I don’t think he’d actually hurt the babies.”

“What makes you so sure?” Luka asked.

“He stopped akumatizing pregnant women,” Adrien said.

“After you threatened his life,” Alya pointed out.

“I don’t think that was the reason,” Adrien said. “He also tried to talk Ladybug out of fighting because she was pregnant, and when she refused, he started giving us really easy villains to fight for a while.”

Nino had finished his phone call and was giving Adrien an incredulous look. “The dude kidnapped your baby. Why are you going so easy on him?”

“I’m not going easy on him. I just think, from what we’ve seen of him . . . I just don’t think he would actually hurt them. I still don’t think we should all attack, since we don’t know where the babies are or if they could get hurt if there was an actual battle. But I think we can at least trust him to keep his word if we do what he says.”

Marinette did not look happy about any of this, but she glanced at the clock and grimaced. “We’re almost out of time.”

“Um, forgive me for asking the obvious question,” Ladybird said, “but why doesn’t Nathaniel just go back in time and stop the kidnapping?”

Marinette pursed her lips. “We already discussed it. But future Bunnyx told us once that the Rabbit Miraculous is for when everyone else fails, and there are dangers in meddling with time. We’ve already taken a big risk by bringing you here. We need to be careful how else we use it.”

“Don’t worry,” Nathaniel said. “I’ll still be here if things . . . go badly.” If Louis and Keva were killed and their adult selves wiped from existence, he meant.

Luka said, “I’ll be here, too. We’ve got your backs.”

In the future, Black Tom knew Luka well enough to know that he often said much less than he thought. He wondered now if Luka had guessed more about them than he’d said. Maybe their big secret was a lot less secret than they hoped.

Whether Luka had guessed the truth about them or not, Black Tom did feel reassured to know that both heroes with power over time were looking out for them.

Max arrived. “I’m here! What are we doing?”

“Can you use Voyage based on coordinates?” Marinette asked him.

Max nodded. “I should be able to.”

Marinette jerked her chin at Nino, who was closest to the tablet, and he found the right spot on the video. Meanwhile, Max transformed into Pegasus.

“We’ll all transform,” Marinette said. “Pegasus will refuel after sending Ladybird and Black Tom through so we can follow if they need backup. We’ll give them a chance to take down Hawk Moth on their own, trap or no trap, but we’ll be ready to jump in if we have to. And we’ll stay on the comm so we can all hear what’s going on.”

“Actually,” Nathaniel interrupted, “I . . . think maybe only I should be on the comm with them.”

Marinette frowned at him. “Why?”

“Call it a hunch.”

She might have argued with him, but Alya was quick to back him up. “I’m fine with that.”

Luka said, “Me, too. He must have his reasons.”

It was enough for Marinette to reluctantly nod. “Okay. Nathaniel, you listen in and keep us apprised of what we need to know.”

Nathaniel put his baby in a crib and transformed. The rest of them transformed as well. Viperion activated his Second Chance.

“One minute,” Ladybird said, checking the clock.

Pegasus said, “Voyage,” and pulled open a hole in the air.

Black Tom put his earpiece in and looked at Ladybird. “Ready to go?”

She took his hand. “Yeah.”

“Be careful, you two,” Rena Rouge told them.

Ladybird met her mother’s eyes. “We will.”

Black Tom looked over at his parents, hoping it wasn’t the last time he’d see them. Hoping his dad was right about their arch-nemesis. “Be back soon.”

On the other side of the portal, Ladybird and Black Tom stepped out onto a metal walkway, their hands unclasping as they prepared for whatever Hawk Moth had for them.

They were in a cavernous, metal room which was lit from some light source behind them. But Black Tom didn’t turn around to take it all in. As soon as he exited the portal, his attention was fully focused on what he saw before him.

The narrow metal walkway led to a small, circular platform housing a circular, glass elevator. But that wasn’t the thing that held his attention.

Hawk Moth stood at the end of the walkway, and behind him, two baskets hanging from ropes stretching high above to the ceiling, each basket holding a sleeping baby.

Black Tom swallowed down his fear and took several steps closer, still at least twenty feet away from the villain. “We’re here now. Give us the babies.”

Even from this distance, he saw Hawk Moth’s smile clearly. He also saw how Hawk Moth wasn’t wearing his usual costume. His normal costume was all purple and silver and resembled a suit. What he wore now still looked like a suit, but a more formal one with a long tail-like jacket, and it had a lot of orange and green mixed in with the purple.

“Holy crap,” Ladybird whispered. “He’s wearing three Miraculouses, isn’t he?”

In his ear, Black Tom heard White Rabbit say, “He’s what?!”

And then Hawk Moth shouted, “Shelter!” and a huge, translucent, green dome covered the entire room. Hawk Moth, the babies, and the heroes were all enclosed within it.

“Crap!” Black Tom hissed. “He used Shelter to trap us in here.”

“And keep us out,” White Rabbit said.

Black Tom heard him telling the others what had happened. At least Hawk Moth’s Shelter hadn’t cut off communications with the team, though it would probably prevent Pegasus from creating another portal in.

“It’s all right,” Ladybird told him softly. “Even if they can’t get here to fight, White Rabbit and Viperion still have things covered.”

_Right. It’s fine._

Black Tom took another step toward Hawk Moth. “You’re crazy, Hawk Moth. You can’t use three Miraculouses at once! It’s too dangerous!”

“How kind of you to worry for my safety,” Hawk Moth said. “But shouldn’t you be more worried about yourselves?” Without looking away from them, he gestured behind him, toward the babies.

“So you know who we are,” Ladybird said. “Big deal. You gonna let them go or what?”

“I will,” Hawk Moth said calmly, “as soon as the two of you give me your Miraculouses.”

“No,” Black Tom said, calling his bluff. Hopefully. “Give them to us and let us leave.”

Hawk Moth’s arms snapped out, a cane in one and a long flute in the other, both weapons hovering threateningly over the suspended babies. “Do you really want to test me, boy?” he shouted.

Black Tom paled and looked at Ladybird, both of them suddenly uncertain. Maybe Adrien had been wrong. Could they really afford to push Hawk Moth any further?

Did they really have a choice right now?

They’d known it was a trap, and they’d walked into it anyway. But they had to believe that, somehow, their team would still be able to back them up. Or maybe they could get close enough to get the babies away before he attacked.

“All right.” Black Tom held his hands out in front of him. “We’ll bring them to you.”

“Take them off first,” Hawk Moth ordered.

Black Tom grimaced. So much for finding a chance to Cataclysm him or something. He slid the ring off his finger as Ladybird took out her earrings, and their transformations fell.

Tikki and Plagg looked around frantically, but there wasn’t much they could do. Plagg’s power was far too strong to use on his own, and the kwamis were too small to save the babies themselves. Besides, the Shelter would prevent any of them from escaping.

“What are you doing?” Tikki asked in a panic.

“We don’t have a choice,” Keva told her.

Louis wondered what White Rabbit and the rest of the team were thinking now that they’d gone offline. Time apparently hadn’t been reset yet, but they hadn’t used up anything close to five minutes. Maybe they were giving them more time. If so, Louis and Keva had only a few more minutes to find a solution, then Viperion would activate Second Chance, and they’d be back at square one with no idea how to save the babies.

Slowly moving closer to Hawk Moth, Louis examined the area around the villain, looking for a weakness.

Suddenly, Hawk Moth grunted and fell to his knees, grasping his head. Keva tried to rush forward, but Hawk Moth looked up and pointed his cane threateningly at her, which made her stop.

In the same instant that Louis guessed Hawk Moth was suffering the effects of using too many Miraculouses at once, Hawk Moth made a loud, frustrated sound, tore the Fox Miraculous from around his neck, and tossed it into the elevator behind him.

A wave of orange magic flowed over him, removing the orange markings from his costume and changing the style slightly. The flute disappeared, too.

And so did the babies.

Babies, baskets, and ropes all vanished like a vapor in the air.

“An illusion,” Keva said.

Louis sagged with relief. “It wasn’t real.”

Hawk Moth—who was still wearing both the Butterfly and the Turtle Miraculouses—got to his feet. “Of course not.”

“Where are they?” Keva demanded. “What is all this about?”

Hawk Moth looked down his nose at them as if considering what to do with a whining child. “Turn around.”

Louis frowned. Something strange was going on. But while Keva stiffened in defiance, Louis turned, his feet moving almost on their own.

Behind them was a huge, round window, which filled the room with soft sunlight. At the end of the room was a round platform that filled almost the whole far end from wall to wall. The platform was covered in plants, and from the plants hung small, white cocoons. In the middle of it all was a . . . pod. Or something. It reminded Louis of Snow White’s glass coffin, but it had a domed lid. The pod was propped at an angle, so he couldn’t see what was inside it, but he had the feeling that it was extremely important.

He moved toward it, step by step, and didn’t stop when he felt Keva tugging at his arm in confusion. So she went with him and was at his side when he got close enough to see what was inside the pod.

Louis almost didn’t believe his eyes. “Is that . . . Grandmother?”

A woman who looked exactly like Emilie Agreste lay in the pod, as peaceful as if she were only sleeping comfortably.

Keva gasped, and her hand tightened around his arm.

Louis turned back to Hawk Moth, who had walked up to the larger platform to join them, keeping well out of arm’s reach. “What is this?” Louis asked him. He couldn’t even figure out how he was supposed to feel. Angry? Afraid? All he could manage was confused.

“I’m not a monster,” Hawk Moth said softly, looking Louis in the eyes with an expression which was . . . strangely familiar. “I would never place my own infant grandson in danger.”

It took a second for his words to sink in. Louis’s heart gave a strange lurch. “G-Grandfather?!”

Hawk Moth held out his hand. “Give me the Miraculouses, Louis, so I can revive my wife.”

Louis looked from Hawk Moth to Emilie and back. Keva was still as a statue behind him, her mouth and eyes both wide with shock. Louis shook his head, trying to clear it. “This doesn’t make sense. Hawk Moth, you’re my grandfather? You’re Gabriel Agreste?”

“I am.”

“You’ve been . . . terrorizing everyone? Your own son?”

Hawk Moth scowled. “I didn’t know Adrien was Cat Noir until relatively recently.”

Keva finally found her voice. “And as soon as you found out, you tried to steal his Miraculous.”

Hawk Moth gave her an annoyed look. “Yes. That failure drew this whole process out needlessly, but here we are. This is what I need them for.”

“This?” Louis looked again at Emilie. “But . . . but that doesn’t make sense. You don’t need Miraculouses to wake Grandmother up. She woke up on her own.”

Hawk Moth blinked in surprise and lowered his hand. “What?”

Louis nodded. “Grandmother woke up from her coma when I was three. She’s perfectly fine.”

Hawk Moth staggered backward a step and grabbed the railing to steady himself. “She what?”

“She’s fine. I had breakfast with her and . . . well, you . . . a week before we came back here.”

Giving him a hard look, Hawk Moth regained his full height. “How can I believe you?”

“Why would I lie about that?”

His grandfather raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, fine. Let’s see . . . She’s about to film a new movie. She’s excited because she said she’s always secretly wanted to play a spicy madame.” Louis couldn’t help smiling at the memory. His grandmother could sure be awfully cheeky.

Hawk Moth’s jaw dropped in astonishment. Apparently that had been insider enough information to satisfy him. But he pulled himself together quickly. “How did she recover?”

“No one really knows,” Louis answered. “She just came out of it.”

“Then you don’t know it wasn’t because I used the Miraculouses.”

Louis considered the point. He didn’t _exactly_ know it hadn’t been that, but it seemed unlikely. He thought back to what he’d overheard with Keva when they were listening at his dad’s office door. “In my past, we never came back to this time to keep fighting you. The heroes just stopped and gave their Miraculouses to the Guardian, who took them out of Paris. You kept akumatizing people, to try to draw Ladybug and Cat Noir out, but they never showed up, and you mostly gave up. I don’t think you would have kept trying at all if you’d gotten the Miraculouses from the Guardian. Then, three years later . . . after Grandmother woke up, although no one realized the connection . . . you—Hawk Moth—stopped completely, and no one ever heard about you again.”

Hawk Moth considered all of this with a scowl.

Keva said, “Not to backtrack or anything, but where are the babies? You know, us?”

With a dismissive wave, Hawk Moth answered, “Your infant selves are perfectly safe. Their nanny has them.”

Louis frowned. “Geneviève was missing, and no one was able to contact her.”

“Nathalie took her phone before telling her to take the babies on an outing. As far as Geneviève is concerned, your parents are entirely aware of their children’s whereabouts. She’ll likely arrive home with them any time now.”

Louis’s hand itched to get the phone out of his pocket and call his mom, but he doubted Hawk Moth would allow it. “Nathalie’s in on it, too?”

“She’s been helping me from the start.”

Keva gasped. “Is she Mayura?”

Hawk Moth nodded.

Louis felt a keen stab of pity in his chest. “Poor Sebastien,” he murmured. “I hope he never finds out both his parents were supervillains.”

There was an odd hesitation in Hawk Moth’s posture, and he asked, “Was I . . . a good father to him?”

So he did still care. “I never heard him complain about you,” Louis told him. “After Grandmother woke up, he moved in with you two. Apparently Nathalie thought he’d have a better life with the two of you than with her. The way Sebastien tells it, he thinks she was right. As far as he’s concerned, Emilie is his mother.”

The vulnerability that crept onto Hawk Moth’s face gave Louis hope.

“I know you love Grandmother, Grandfather, but this is too far. You need to give up and turn yourself in.”

The vulnerability vanished, and Hawk Moth looked almost amused by that suggestion. “Do you really think I’ve come this far only to quit now?”

“But you don’t need the Miraculouses!” Keva said. “Louis told you she’ll be fine!”

“Maybe I’d like to have them as backup, just in case his information doesn’t apply to the timeline you two created when you came back here to meddle.”

Louis stared at the man in front of him, working hard to reconcile him with the man he knew. “I can’t believe it’s really you, that you would really do all of this. The Gabriel Agreste I know is . . . well, a bit stern and a bit cool, but he smiles and laughs, and I know he loves me and my siblings.”

“The Gabriel Agreste you know has his wife,” Hawk Moth said darkly.

“And you will again, Grandfather. Just have a little patience,” Louis implored.

“I won’t if I turn myself in,” Hawk Moth countered. Which was a very valid point. “You know, I find it rather hypocritical of you to lecture me on my actions as Hawk Moth when, were it not for my actions as Hawk Moth, the two of you would not exist. You could say that you owe me your lives.”

It seemed like a pretty awful thing to say, but Louis couldn’t really argue that it wasn’t true.

“What are you going to do, Grandfather?” Louis asked. “We know who you are now. How do you plan to keep us quiet. Kill us?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Hawk Moth hissed. “I told you because I thought you might help me!”

“But we won’t, and we don’t need to.”

Hawk Moth was quiet for a moment, tapping the round top of his cane with two fingers. “So you say.”

Louis stepped closer to him—not quite close enough to reach out, but he thought he might be able to get the other man to see sense. “You’ve put your own son’s life in danger more times than I can count. You put him through emotional turmoil I can’t even imagine. And it was all for nothing, because Grandmother will come out of her coma all on her own.” He caught Hawk Moth’s gaze and made sure he was listening. “Haven’t you made enough mistakes, Grandfather?” Something deep in Hawk Moth’s eyes cracked, so Louis kept pushing. He held out his own hand and said, “Your Miraculouses. You don’t need them anymore.”

Hawk Moth’s gaze sharpened, and he moved a step away. “And then what? I turn myself in?”

“Isn’t that the right thing to do?”

Keva grabbed Louis’s arm and leaned close to whisper in his ear. “But won’t that change our past too much?”

_Crap_. She had a point. Louis’s mom had sent him into the past to take down Hawk Moth under the assumption that he was just some random stranger. She’d also told him to change as little as possible. Now that he knew who Hawk Moth was, he couldn’t do both. If Gabriel Agreste went to jail for being a supervillain, the lives of his entire family would be drastically changed.

Apparently Hawk Moth saw an opening. “Indulge my curiosity, won’t you? How old are you two?”

“Twenty-one,” Louis said. It seemed like pretty innocuous information.

Hawk Moth smiled. “And I’ve been a good grandfather for all that time?”

“For as long as I can remember,” Louis muttered, since obviously he hadn’t been that great a grandfather for the first few weeks of Louis’s life at least.

“Then, for the sake of familial bonds, I propose a deal,” Hawk Moth said in a smooth voice that made Louis’s insides feel slimy.

“What kind of deal?” he asked against his better judgment.

“I’ll hand over all the Miraculouses in my possession, and the two of you keep my identity to yourselves.” He cut a glare to where Tikki and Plagg were floating high above, as if that would help them escape should Hawk Moth obtain their Miraculouses. “And you instruct the kwamis to keep it secret as well.”

Leaning back against the railing, Louis consulted his feelings on the matter. They didn’t like it. His brain, on the other hand, told him this was the best option. “So, you get away with everything you’ve done, and we get the Miraculouses and the assurance that you won’t do any of it again.”

Hawk Moth spread his hands. “You’ll get no such assurance. If three years pass and my wife doesn’t wake up, I’ll do whatever I need to in order to bring her back. But if she does wake up, then everyone wins.”

“Except justice,” Keva murmured. But Louis could tell her heart wasn’t in it. Both of them knew that stopping him from causing any more trouble was the best they were going to get out of this if they didn’t want to change their own past beyond recognition.

And Louis knew that his grandfather was a decent person. Gabriel Agreste regularly donated to charities. He helped out friends and family when they needed it. Now Louis thought that maybe he did all of that out of guilt, but if that was his way to try to make amends, then did that change the end result?

No. The fact was, even aside from Louis’s family, the world was better off with a Gabriel Agreste who used his influence and fortune to do good rather than with a Gabriel Agreste who consumed taxpayer resources rotting away in prison.

But it still felt like the wrong thing. It definitely felt like an unheroic thing.

Louis went over to Hawk Moth and offered his hand. “Deal.”

Hawk Moth grinned like he’d won. If getting away with a bunch of crime was winning, Louis supposed he had. He clasped Louis’s hand tightly, then held his out for Keva. “I’ll need your word on it as well, Keva.”

Keva’s mouth twisted like she tasted something disgusting, but she shook his hand. “I can’t wait to get back to our time when you’re not so creepy.”

“And the kwamis?” Hawk Moth said.

Instead of dealing with that, Louis called out, “Plagg, claws out!” He transformed, and Keva followed his lead. “We’ll talk to them,” he told Hawk Moth. “I’ll make sure they know what revealing your identity would do to our parents.”

Hawk Moth nodded, apparently satisfied with that. He removed the Turtle Miraculous from his wrist, and the Shelter fell along with that part of his transformation. Wayzz immediately darted behind Ladybird and watched in surprise as Hawk Moth handed the Turtle Miraculous to Black Tom. As soon as he did so, Wayzz got sucked into the Miraculous.

“One second.” Black Tom got his earpiece from his stick and put it in. “White Rabbit, you there?”

“Yes!” White Rabbit shouted in relief. “What happened?”

“Tell you later. Everything’s fine. We have the situation under control. Stand down.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. We’re good.”

“All right. I’ll stay on the line for now,” White Rabbit said.

Black Tom held out his hand again, and Hawk Moth gave it a lingering look before finally saying, “Dark wings fall.”

Even though Black Tom had known his identity, it was still an unpleasant shock to actually see the supervillain Hawk Moth turn into his grandfather, Gabriel Agreste. With a small smile, Gabriel handed over the Butterfly Miraculous.

In his ear, Louis heard White Rabbit freaking out. “What was that? What that Hawk Moth? Did he just detransform?”

“Yeah,” Louis told him, touching his earpiece. “Like I said. We’re good here.”

The sudden uproar from the other end of the line was so distracting, Black Tom had to take the earpiece out.

As if he could hear it himself, Gabriel smirked in amusement, then led them away down the metal walkway, not speaking because Ladybird still had her earpiece in.

They followed Gabriel, the man as calm and collected as could be, until they reached the elevator, where he carefully stooped to retrieve the Fox Miraculous and held it out for Black Tom. With a hand, he beckoned the two heroes into the elevator, and they rode in silence—Ladybird pressed up against Black Tom in the tight space in a way that he didn’t mind at all and which made his grandfather raise an eyebrow—until they came out in Gabriel’s atelier.

It was a room Black Tom was very familiar with. Entering it through a secret passage like this was almost as strange as seeing Hawk Moth turning into his grandfather had been.

Gabriel then swung the large portrait of Emilie from the wall, revealing a secret safe. He keyed in a code and opened the wall safe. As he retrieved the Peacock Miraculous and an old book from the safe, Ladybird moved far enough away that they could speak without being overheard through the comm.

“This is what caused Emilie’s coma,” Gabriel said, holding the Peacock Miraculous in his palm for Black Tom to see. “It’s damaged, and so it damaged her. I’ve been unable to repair it, but if you bring it to the Guardian, perhaps he’ll know of a way. Make sure it gets repaired before anyone else tries to use it.”

Black Tom took it carefully. “Thank you for the warning.”

“You sound surprised.”

“No. I know you, Grandfather. I know you’re not an evil person. To be honest, if something happened to Keva and I thought I’d lost her . . . I’m not sure what I’d do.” He wanted to think he wouldn’t become a supervillain, but who really knew? He would never have thought he’d make a deal with a supervillain to protect him from justice either.

Although, there was still the chance that he could change that after he got back to his time. He put that thought away to consider once they got home.

Gabriel put a hand on Black Tom’s shoulder. “Well, grandson, this has certainly been interesting.”

Black Tom huffed a laugh. “Yeah. You could even say it’s been a _wife_ -changing experience.”

Gabriel met the pun with a blank look for long enough that Black Tom wondered if he was annoyed before the corners of his mouth turned up. “I look forward to getting to know you, Louis.” He stepped back. “You’d better get home. Your parents are worried.”

#

After his grandson and presumptive future granddaughter-in-law left the mansion, Gabriel took out his phone and called Nathalie.

“Sir?”

“Are you alone?”

“I’m in my bedroom with Sebastien.”

After what Louis had told him, the unpleasant twist Gabriel felt in his stomach whenever she mentioned their son wasn’t quite so strong. “Good. It’s over.”

“You have their Miraculouses?”

“No, Nathalie. I gave them mine. All of them.”

There were several seconds of silence. Finally, Nathalie asked in a tight, restrained voice, “What about Emilie?”

“According to Louis, she’ll wake up from her coma on her own in approximately three years.”

There was a sharp intake of breath, but she covered it quickly. “You believe him?”

“He told me something about Emilie which she never told Adrien.” There wasn’t anything salacious about any of Emilie’s artistic aspirations, but there were some things it wasn’t quite appropriate to tell a child. “I believe him.”

“I see. Then he discovered your identity?”

“Yes. But we made an agreement. He’ll keep the secret in return for the Miraculouses. I’ve also given him the spell book, as I’ll no longer require it.”

“That’s . . . good to hear. Congratulations, Gabriel. I’m very happy that your dream will be fulfilled.”

“Thank you, Nathalie.”

“Did they . . . say anything about Sebastien? In their time, that is.”

“Not in detail.” It was a small lie, but he decided not to tell her about Sebastien coming to live at the mansion once Emilie woke up. That was Nathalie’s decision to make—or not—when the time came. “But from what Louis said, I gather that Sebastien is happy.”

He knew Nathalie well enough to hear the smile and the faint note of relief in her voice. “Good.”

“Since our identities are not compromised, nothing else will change. Although, if the children decide to keep their Miraculouses, you might need to feign blindness or confusion should you happen to run across a kwami.”

Now there was amusement as well. “I understand.”

“Nathalie. I want to thank you for your help. And your loyalty. You are . . . a truly remarkable woman.” It was the closest he could bring himself to telling her that if it weren’t for Emilie, he probably would have been able to love her.

After a long pause, she said, “Thank you, Gabriel,” and he was certain that she’d understood him.


	117. Chapter 117

Although he wanted to get back as quickly as he could, Black Tom knew they needed to take a minute. Ladybird had explained to the team that the babies were safe, and that was enough to keep them from panicking further while Ladybird and Black Tom went radio silent.

They returned to Kim’s apartment and detransformed.

“I can’t believe it!” Plagg shrieked. “That piece of trash! All this time it was Adrien’s own _father_?!”

Tikki flew over and tried to calm him. “I know, Plagg. I know. Poor Adrien.”

“Why did you hold me back, Tikki? I could have Cataclysmed that good-for-nothing loser and been done with it!”

“You would have killed Adrien’s father?” Tikki asked gently. “How do you think he would have felt about that?”

Plagg’s fury died down a little. “Well . . . ”

“Are you guys okay with this?” Louis asked them. “With . . . the deal I made?”

Plagg crossed his arms and turned away in a huff. Tikki frowned and said, “The idea of letting Hawk Moth get away with what he’s done is really upsetting. But . . . I understand why you did it.”

Even though he was pouting, Plagg didn’t argue that point. Maybe he also understood it, even if he didn’t like it.

“So you guys’ll keep the secret?” Louis asked. “Before we left our time, Mom told us to make sure we changed as little as possible. Obviously, she didn’t know about Grandfather being Hawk Moth. I’m not sure what she would say if she did.”

“We could ask her,” Keva suggested. He could tell by her tone that it wasn’t a real suggestion, though. She was only pointing out that the option was there.

Louis considered it. “No. We can’t. First, because I promised Grandfather I wouldn’t.”

“What’s a promise to someone like _that_?” Plagg huffed. “Besides, you got what you wanted. What’s holding you to your end?”

Rather than explaining the concept of personal honor, Louis ignored him. “Second, because that would put the really hard choice of whether or not to turn Grandfather in onto Mom and Dad. I know they’d choose to turn him in, even though it would make things so much harder for them. I don’t want to put them through that.”

Keva rested her hands on her hips. “And _I_ don’t want to screw up our past. As much as I’d normally go for justice, in this case I think I’ll have to say that not screwing up the timeline is more important.”

Tikki flew up close to Keva’s face. “So you don’t want to tell the others _anything_?”

Louis shook his head. “We can’t. Even if we somehow got them to keep it secret themselves, the knowledge would eat them up. Even I’m still having a hard time with it, and I’m an adult _and_ Grandfather isn’t my father. Dad’s only fifteen right now, and he’s already carrying the guilt of not stopping Fairy Grandmother for the sake of his family. I’m not going to make him carry the guilt of protecting a supervillain for the sake of his family, too, if he decided not to send his own father to prison.”

The two kwamis hung in the air, their whisker things drooping, as they thought about what he said.

“None of us like this,” Keva said. “But it’s where we’re at. Are you two on board with keeping this secret?”

Tikki let out a sigh. “I am.”

Plagg grumped and bounced around in the air unhappily for a few seconds before saying, “Fine. Okay. But if that jerkface steps out of line, all bets are off.”

“Agreed.” Louis took the other Miraculouses out of his pocket. “How can I talk to the other kwamis?”

“You can put them on, but don’t try to transform,” said Tikki. “Marinette did that when she was Multimouse, so you should be fine.”

Following her instructions, Louis put on the fox necklace, turtle bracelet, butterfly pin, and peacock brooch. Four more kwamis popped into the air. As soon as they saw Tikki and Plagg, the peacock and butterfly kwamis cheered and greeted them. Trixx started complaining about Gabriel, and Wayzz launched into an incomprehensible bout of worried mumbling.

Louis held up his hands. “Guys, guys, calm down. I need to talk to you.”

The kwamis settled down and watched him.

“Look, we found out who Hawk Moth is. We know he’s Gabriel Agreste.”

“Then, has he been arrested?” asked Trixx.

“No . . . ”

The peacock kwami hovered in front of his face, looking him over with an awed smile. “Who are you?”

It was a little disconcerting having her so close, with that weird expression. Even though she presented no threat, Louis couldn’t help leaning away. “I’m, uh, I’m Louis . . . ” There was probably no point hiding the rest of it from her, since she’d seen his face and might figure out his identity at an inopportune time if he didn’t tell her. “I’m Gabriel’s grandson from the future. Keva and I came back to help out.”

Wayzz and Trixx gasped at Keva, then flew excited circles around her. Trixx even dove into her hair like she was ruffling it with her whole body. Keva laughed. “I like you guys, too, but you can’t tell my parents, okay?”

“Why not?” Trixx asked.

Wayzz nodded sagely. “Of course, Keva. It would risk altering the timeline.”

“And you can’t tell anyone about Hawk Moth’s identity, either,” Louis told them. “I made a promise to keep it secret. That was the only reason he handed the Miraculouses over.”

“I can’t believe I’m finally free,” the butterfly kwami said. He bowed deeply to Louis. “Thank you, new master.”

“I’m not your master,” Louis told him. “I’m only wearing these so I can talk to you.”

Trixx crossed her arms and flicked her bushy tail. “Well, I don’t like it. You want to just let Hawk Moth go?”

Louis sighed and explained the whole thing again.

Eventually, they got most of the kwamis’ agreement to keep the secret. Nooroo and Duusu (the butterfly and peacock kwamis, as they’d introduced themselves) were happy just to be free. Trixx and Wayzz were a lot less forgiving, though they agreed to at least keep their mouths shut until the Guardian was apprised of the situation.

Louis hoped the Guardian would see it the same way as him, or else his entire world could be in danger.

But that was a worry for later. Louis took the extra Miraculouses off, and the four kwamis disappeared. He was about to transform when Tikki’s voice stopped him.

“Louis, about this.” She was hovering over the spell book, which he’d laid on the coffee table while he handled the Miraculouses. “If you want to keep the secret of Hawk Moth’s identity, you can’t let Marinette or Adrien see this book. They both know Adrien’s father had it.”

Louis had been planning to take it with him. That was a close call. “All right. We’ll leave it here for now. Thank you, Tikki.” It would have been so easy for her to have said nothing and let them discover Hawk Moth’s identity. Louis wouldn’t even have broken his promise. But who knew what devastation that could have had on his and Keva’s past? At least now Louis was sure Tikki really did see how important keeping the secret was.

#

Even though she knew that, according to Ladybird, the whole thing had been a trick and Hawk Moth had never had the babies, Marinette’s heart just would not stop pounding. There was a tightness in her chest right behind her sternum, and her mind kept wandering into worst-case-scenario imaginings.

“Everything’s fine,” Adrien said. They were all downstairs in the living room now, and he was beside her on the couch, pressed close to her with their hands clasped. “Hawk Moth must have been watching the house or something and taken advantage of the situation when he saw Geneviève take the babies out.”

“But where did she take them?”

“We can ask her when she gets back. Maybe they just went for an outing or something.”

There were things about this that didn’t add up, but it was hard for Marinette to work them out while she was still worried. “I can’t relax until I see him again for myself.”

From her other side, Alya laid a hand on Marinette’s knee. “I know how you feel. But it’ll be fine. Ladybird said so.”

Marinette _knew_ that, but no matter how many times she told herself to stop worrying, she couldn’t.

She heard footsteps behind them before Nathalie approached with Sebastien in her arms. Shifting her hold on him, she held out a phone. “I found Mom’s phone in my room. She must have left it there by accident when she was talking to me this morning.”

Nino took it from her and set it on the coffee table. “That explains that, I guess.” He wasn’t as calm as Alya, but he was trying to keep it together.

The sound of keys in a lock came from the front door, and everyone stiffened like alerted meercats. The door opened, and Geneviève came through with a double stroller. “Oh! Hello, every—”

Marinette scrambled over the coffee table in her rush to her baby. As soon as she saw him lying peacefully in the stroller, the tightness in her chest relaxed. She scooped him out and held him to her chest. “There you are.”

By this time, Nino was holding Keva, and Geneviève was looking at them all with concern. “Is something the matter?”

Nathalie drew her along. “Come to my room, and I’ll explain everything. Let’s give them some space.”

As they left, Adrien pulled Marinette and Louis into a hug. “See?” he said, almost breathless with relief. “They’re just fine.”

A couple minutes later, a knock came from the front door. Adrien opened it to let Ladybird and Black Tom in.

_All right, focus_ , Marinette told herself. Louis was safe in her arms, and it was time to switch to team leader mode. There were questions to be answered and things to be done. Nathalie still had Geneviève in her room with her, but they might come out at any time. So even though the living room had the most seating space, it wouldn’t really work for a team meeting as long as there were others in the house. Kim’s apartment would have been a better place for this—or Luka’s place if it was clear—but everyone was here now, and Marinette was too impatient for information to relocate.

“Let’s go up to our room.” She led them up to the top floor and into the girls’ room. Once everyone had found a spot on beds or on the floor—everyone except Ladybird and Black Tom—Marinette asked, “So what happened?”

Ever since they’d entered the house, Black Tom had been looking strangely sheepish and uncomfortable, and Ladybird had seemed slightly on edge. Now, Ladybird’s mouth tightened into a thin line, and Black Tom rubbed the back of his neck. “We can’t, uh . . . ” Black Tom wasn’t looking Marinette or anyone else in the eye. “We can’t really tell you.”

“What?!” snapped Nino.

“What do you mean you can’t tell us?” asked Alix.

“Not everything!” Black Tom corrected. “But, well, I’ll explain. Okay, so we got to . . . the place . . . and we confronted Hawk Moth. He was using the Turtle and Fox Miraculouses as well as his own.”

Adrien gasped. “Isn’t that dangerous? Didn’t Master Fu say that was dangerous?”

Black Tom nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I said. He didn’t care. He _appeared_ to have the babies with him.”

“An illusion,” Alya said with an irritated frown.

“Yeah,” said Ladybird.

Black Tom continued. “We thought he had us and we’d have to hand over our Miraculouses to save the babies. We even took them off to give them to him. But before we could, he fell like he was in pain and pulled off the Fox Miraculous.”

“So it _was_ too much for him,” Luka said.

“I guess,” said Black Tom. “So the illusion disappeared, and we knew the babies weren’t really in danger. We weren’t transformed then, and he still had two Miraculouses, so we couldn’t find a way to overpower him. So instead, we . . . talked to him.”

Marinette was intrigued. “You . . . had a conversation with him?”

“Yeah.”

“Wait,” Adrien said. “You mean he had you at a disadvantage, and instead of fighting you, he just talked?”

“Yeah.”

The team exchanged glances among themselves. That was definitely not normal Hawk Moth behavior.

“What did he say?” Marinette asked.

Black Tom looked uncomfortable again. “He explained why he’d been doing all of it, and—”

“He did?!” Alya broke in. “Why?”

“Yeah, why?” several more people chorused eagerly.

Ladybird crossed her arms and twisted her mouth before looking to Black Tom. Why was she letting him do most of the talking? Whatever had happened, it seemed to have made him uncomfortable and her . . . kind of angry?

Black Tom cleared his throat and looked at a blank spot on the wall. “We can’t tell you.”

“What?” several people demanded.

“We made a deal with him,” Black Tom said. “He was willing to give up his Miraculouses, but only if Ladybird and I—and the kwamis—kept his identity secret.”

Adrien leapt to his feet. “Wait, so you agreed to let him get away with it? With everything he’s been doing?”

Marinette was still holding Louis, so she didn’t jump up, but she did feel a burning anger flare up inside her. “He’s been terrorizing Paris and using innocent people as his tools,” she seethed, “and you agreed to let him get away with it?”

Black Tom flinched hard. “Y-yeah. I . . . had to.”

“Why?” Marinette asked.

“I . . . can’t tell you.”

Finally, Ladybird spoke up. She moved closer to Black Tom as if protecting him from the rest of them and took his hand in hers. “Look, guys, I know this sucks. Believe me, if it weren’t absolutely necessary, I wouldn’t have gone along with it. Neither would Plagg and Tikki, but we stopped to talk to them, and they agreed to keep it secret, too.”

Marinette blinked in surprise, her anger fading abruptly into confusion. She would want to talk to Tikki herself, of course, but if Tikki really had agreed to this plan, she must have had her reasons.

Black Tom was staring at the floor now, but Ladybird looked around to meet her teammates’ eyes, finally settling on Nathaniel. “It has to do with the timeline,” she said. “The Marinette from our time, when she picked us to do this, made us promise to avoid changing our past as much as we could. And in our past, Hawk Moth never faced justice. In our past, the heroes disappeared, the Miraculouses were sent away, and Hawk Moth eventually gave up. We’ve got the Miraculouses back this time, but you have no idea what Hawk Moth’s identity being revealed might do to our past. It would be huge, right? And there’s the butterfly effect to consider—no pun intended, Adrien. We do know Hawk Moth’s identity, and we can’t tell you who he is, but no matter who he really is, one man’s life would be very, very different if he were sent to prison instead of being allowed to go on with his life as it had been. And one man affects others, and those others affect others still. What if Hawk Moth has a family? How would their lives be changed if Hawk Moth is arrested? And how would the changes to their lives affect the lives of those around them? Think about it.”

“Who cares about that?” asked Nino.

“Yeah,” said Alya. “Most criminals have families. That’s not a reason not to arrest them.”

Adrien dropped back onto the bed beside Marinette. “No, guys, she’s right. This isn’t just our future we’re talking about. It’s their past. They came to help us stop Hawk Moth, and they have. It’s not fair of us to demand more if it risks changing their lives and the world they know.”

Marinette leaned her shoulder against his. How quickly his anger had left him. Adrien was such an incredibly sweet and forgiving person. It could be frustrating sometimes, when he let people off who didn’t deserve it or gave them a benefit of the doubt they hadn’t earned, but it was one of the things she loved about him anyway. “As much as I hate to let Hawk Moth get away with everything, I agree with Adrien. If we’d done the job ourselves and never involved anyone from the future, we would have had the right to make a decision about Hawk Moth’s fate ourselves. But that’s not what happened. This is on me, guys. If you want to be angry, be angry at me, not Ladybird and Black Tom. I was the one who made the decision to involve people from the future.”

“That’s not true,” Nathaniel interjected. “You sent me to the future to find out who the future Ladybug and Cat Noir were so you could give them the Miraculouses in the present. I was the one who made the decision to bring back volunteers from the future.”

Marinette smiled at him. It was sweet and noble of him to try to take this on himself, but she couldn’t let him. “But I was the one who sent you and told you to do whatever you thought best. That means the responsibility still comes back to me.”

“This isn’t anyone’s fault,” Black Tom said, his hands out to calm them like the idea of them passing blame around troubled him. “It’s just what had to happen. You all made the best decisions you could, and so did we. Sometimes, even the best decisions can’t lead to an ideal outcome.”

“He’s right,” Luka said. “Everyone did their best. This is how things are now. Let’s move forward.”

“I just have one question.” Alix’s tone was even sharper than usual. “Did Hawk Moth even show any remorse?”

The awkward silence from Ladybird and Black Tom was all the answer they needed.

Marinette sighed. “All right. Moving on. You got the Miraculouses?”

Black Tom removed several items from his pockets and offered them to her. Four Miraculouses lay in his open palms.

“My Miraculous!” Alya said eagerly. “Can I have it back?”

Marinette passed Louis to Adrien and took the Miraculouses from Black Tom. She stared at them, thinking. The Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses were in her hands. They really had won. They’d defeated Hawk Moth . . . sort of. Which meant that their reason for being heroes was . . . over.

“Um, Marinette?” said Nino. “Our Miraculouses? Can we have them back?”

“I . . . I think I need to keep them. In fact, I think I need everyone to give me their Miraculouses back.”

“Aw, man!” said Kim. “Why?”

“Because Adrien and I were given our Miraculouses to fight Hawk Moth. We pulled the rest of you in for the same reason. Now that he’s no longer a threat, we don’t have any reason to keep them.”

“We do, though,” Nathaniel insisted in an urgent tone. “Remember what I told you? About the farther future?”

“Yeah!” Nino said, latching onto that. “He said it was bad.”

“He said we needed to keep the Miraculouses around,” Adrien added. There was so much hope on his face, it was almost desperation.

Nathaniel nodded. “We _have_ to keep them in play. The future Paris—the future Earth—can’t risk the Miraculouses disappearing or being lost. And for whatever reason, they were. They must have been. This is one part of the future that we _have_ to change.”

The rest of their team voiced their support of this idea, unsurprisingly. Luka was the only one who even pretended it wasn’t at least partly for selfish reasons. Marinette didn’t blame them, though. Being Ladybug meant _so much_ to her. And Tikki meant so much to her. If there really was a good reason for her to keep her Miraculous and her friend around, she was as eager as the rest of them to cling to it.

But she still asked, “When you talked to me and Adrien in the future, you told them all this?”

“Yes.”

“And they agreed with you?”

“It’s why they sent these two back with me.”

The weight of responsibility that Marinette felt lessened a little bit. If her older, wiser self—and Adrien’s—had heard his reasoning and still agreed with him, then hopefully that meant that the decision she and the rest of the team wanted to make right now was the right one.

“Then I will, too,” Marinette said.

Nathaniel was visibly relieved, Alix whooped, and some of the others cheered.

“But first,” Marinette added, cutting them all off, “I need to talk to the Guardian and Tikki.”

“Who’s the Guardian?” Max asked.

Everyone’s kwamis had been content to watch and listen up to this point, but Marinette saw them all looking at her with worry or warning now. The Guardian needed to stay as secret as possible, she knew, but she had to tell the team something.

“The keeper of the Miraculouses,” she said. “The one who chose Adrien and I.”

“And Kim,” Adrien added.

“And Kim.”

“Wait, does that mean I’ve met him?” Kim asked.

“I can’t really say,” Marinette said. “Even if I knew, I can’t really say. The Guardian is top secret information. It took a while before even I found out about him. But he’s the one that gets to make the decisions about where the Miraculouses go, so he’s the one we need to convince. If we kept the Miraculouses without his permission, no matter how justified or necessary we thought it was, it would be stealing, and we’d be no better than Hawk Moth. I completely agree with the rest of you. If Nathaniel says we need to keep the Miraculouses, I’ll try to convince the Guardian that we do. In fact, Nathaniel, you come with Adrien and I. You may need to tell the Guardian things that we shouldn’t hear.”

Nathaniel frowned. “You mean everything?”

“I know it sounds strange, but yes, you can tell him whatever he wants to know.”

“He’s that trustworthy?” Alix asked.

Adrien nodded. “Yes. I haven’t always agreed with his decisions about the Miraculouses, but he’s definitely trustworthy. _He’s_ the one who entrusted _us_ with them, after all.”

“Okay,” said Nathaniel. “I trust you completely, Marinette, so if you say we can trust him, I will.”

“Thanks, Nathaniel. Okay, so . . . I need the rest of you to give me your Miraculouses. Then Adrien, Nathaniel and I will go talk to the Guardian. And . . . well, I guess it’s time for Ladybird and Black Tom to go home, too.”

A pensive silence settled over the group. Marinette thought she wasn’t the only one who didn’t know how to say goodbye.

Alya was the first to get up from her bed. She was still holding Keva, but she adjusted her so she could get an arm free. “Well, hey, guess this is bye for now. You guys did amazing jobs. Almost as good as the originals.” She gave Ladybird a one-armed hug, then surprised Black Tom by giving him one, too. “You know, if we do get to keep our Miraculouses, we’ll need someone to pass them to eventually.”

When Alya punctuated that statement with a wink, Marinette told her, “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Alya. We don’t even know if we’ll know them in the future they’re going back to.”

She probably imagined the hint of a smirk on Alya’s lips. And Luka’s intense study of his own fingernails. And the way Nathaniel ducked his head to hide his expression behind his bangs.

_Don’t think about it_ , Marinette told herself, grateful that this ordeal was almost over.

The rest of the team said their goodbyes to the replacement heroes and gave their congratulations on a job well done. Then they said goodbye (or a hopeful “goodbye for now”) to their kwamis and ruefully gave their Miraculouses back to Marinette.

“Okay if we hang out here until you get back?” Kim asked.

“Of course,” Marinette told him. “You’re all welcome any time.”

“Is the Guardian still in the same place he was before?” Black Tom asked.

“Yes,” said Marinette. At least, she hoped he would have contacted her if he’d moved.

“Can we meet you there? We need to swing back by the apartment and, uh, pick up a couple things.”

After weeks of living there, Marinette figured they must have accumulated a bit of stuff. Maybe they wanted to bring back some of the clothes Adrien had sent them or something. “Just make sure it’s not anything that would look out of place in your time.”

Black Tom huffed softly in amusement. “I should have figured. Don’t worry. I’ll be careful.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm aware that it's been hinted there are other superheroes in the Miraculous world (I think I even referred to that briefly once in this story), but for the purposes of this story, there aren't so many of them that another team full of heroes wouldn't make all the difference in a worldwide disaster sort of situation.


	118. Chapter 118

They returned to Master Fu’s hideout in the sewers. By the time Adrien, Marinette, and Nathaniel arrived on foot, Ladybird and Black Tom were waiting for them outside. Black Tom had a bulging canvas grocery bag slung over his shoulder.

Nathaniel looked a little nervous as they squeezed through the narrow hallway that led from the sewer tunnel to Master Fu’s room, so Adrien patted him on the shoulder. “It’ll be fine. Master Fu’s a nice guy.”

“Master Fu?” Nathaniel asked.

“The Guardian,” said Marinette. “The Order of Guardians is in China. At least, the only one I know of is. It’s possible there are other branches all over the world.”

She knocked, and the door opened. Master Fu was a very short man, so it was hard for Adrien to see him past Marinette and Nathaniel in the tight hallway. But Master Fu must have seen Fluff hanging around with Pollen and Orikko, because he all said was, “I see you brought a friend. Come in.”

The room was a little tight with six of them, but they all managed to squeeze around Fu’s table on the floor. Marinette had called ahead, so Fu had tea ready to pour.

As he did so, he smiled at Nathaniel. “You must be White Rabbit.”

“Y-yes, sir.” Nathaniel instinctively ducked his head, but immediately fought the impulse, brushing his bangs to the side as he took the tea cup.

“There’s no need to be nervous. From what I’ve heard, you’ve done well.”

“Thank you, uh . . . Master Fu? My name’s Nathaniel.”

Fu looked around the table at the five of them, then at the bag Marinette had with her. “So, what news have you brought me?”

With a huge smile, Marinette pulled two things out of her bag and held them out to Fu, one in each palm.

He gasped. “The Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses?”

“Yes, Master. Ladybird and Black Tom got them. Hawk Moth lured them into a trap, but they were able to talk him into surrendering the Miraculouses.”

Fu took them from her and inspected them. “He just gave them over?”

“Um, basically,” Black Tom said. “We did have to convince him it was the right thing to do, but we got there.”

Fu eyed Black Tom. “What exactly happened?”

With a glance to Adrien and Marinette, Black Tom said, “We can’t tell you in front of the others. In order to get the Miraculouses, Ladybird and I had to agree not to reveal Hawk Moth’s identity to anyone, though we’ll tell you if you really think you need to know.”

“You did what?” Fu asked, sounding horrified. Adrien could relate. They’d been fighting Hawk Moth for long enough that the idea of just letting him off still didn’t sit well.

“Listen to his explanation,” Adrien implored. “None of us like it either, but they say it’s necessary, and we’re willing to go along with it. We got the Miraculouses back, so that’s the main thing.”

Marinette took out all the remaining Miraculouses that she had in her bag, laying them each on the table. Finally, she took the Bee Miraculous from her purse and laid it down, and Adrien did the same with the Rooster Miraculous.

The sight of almost all of the Miraculouses back in his possession must have calmed Fu. He went over to get the Miracle Box and carefully returned each to its place in the box.

Adrien’s fingers twitched as he watched Fu do it, as if he were taking the Miraculouses away forever. He needed to trust that they could all convince him to let them keep them. “Maybe Marinette, Nathaniel, and I should wait outside,” Adrien said. “Black Tom and Ladybird can tell you about what happened.”

Fu’s expression was grave as he nodded.

#

As soon as the three teens left and the door was closed, Ladybird and Black Tom detransformed.

“I am very curious,” said Master Fu, “why you cannot tell the others what happened between you and Hawk Moth.”

Keva sipped tea, letting Louis handle it. Which was fair, he supposed. It was _his_ grandfather they were talking about, and making the deal had mostly been his decision.

He took a deep breath and said, “Hawk Moth is Gabriel Agreste.”

Fu’s jaw dropped, and his eyes bulged. “Adrien’s father? Are you certain?”

Louis almost rolled his eyes, but he fought back the impulse. “He’s my grandfather. I’m very certain.”

As Fu sat there processing the information silently, Longg started processing it verbally, and then he and Tikki and Plagg all got into some kind of argument amongst themselves.

“Are you all right, Master Fu?” Louis asked.

“He was right under our noses the whole time.” Fu’s voice was a shocked whisper. “I never suspected. I once brought the Miracle Box into his house! How could I have been such a fool?”

“Whoa, whoa.” Louis held up his hands. “You’re not a fool for not seeing it, Master. No one else did, either.”

Tikki broke off from her conversation with the other kwamis to say, “Marinette saw it once, when she took the book from Adrien, who’d taken it from his father, but then Adrien’s father akumatized himself into the Collector, and we all assumed that meant he couldn’t be Hawk Moth.”

“This book?” Louis dug through the bag he’d brought and set the book his grandfather had given him on the table.

“The magic spell book!” Fu picked it up eagerly, flipping through it.

“He gave me that along with the Miraculouses. He also said that the Peacock Miraculous is damaged and needs to be repaired before anyone tries to use it.”

Fu frowned. “I see. He has been very clever, and he took a lot of risks to protect his identity and keep us guessing. Still, even holding this evidence in my hands, it’s hard to believe. I know his relationship with Adrien has not been very good, but what could possibly be so important that he would become a supervillain?”

Louis explained the whole thing: the confrontation, that Gabriel had discovered their identities, finding Emilie, and using their knowledge of the future to talk Gabriel into handing over the Miraculouses.

“Is what you told him true?” Fu asked when he’d finished.

Louis blinked at the question. “Everything I told him was true. What do you mean?”

“You didn’t lie to him about his wife in order to gain his cooperation?”

“Of course not.”

Fu smiled. “I’m glad to hear that. I suppose that same honesty compels you to keep your word regarding his identity.”

“Yes, but . . . it’s not just that,” Louis admitted. “If Grandfather were arrested, my whole life would probably change retroactively. Keva and I came here to help, but we can’t do that at the risk of our own present.”

Fu sighed. “Yes, I see your point.”

Tikki said, “Plagg and I have agreed to keep Louis’s deal.”

“Reluctantly,” Plagg added.

Their word clearly had weight with Fu; Louis could tell from the old man’s expression. “But what about when they return home?” Fu asked. “I am old. I won’t be around forever. I still need to find a replacement Guardian, now that Marinette is no longer in a position to take my place. What happens if Adrien’s mother does not wake up and his father tries to become a supervillain again? If no one is left who knows his identity, who will stop him?”

“ _We’ll_ know his identity,” said Tikki.

Plagg nodded firmly. “We’ll keep an eye on that punk. If he ever tries anything shady, we can tell Adrien and Marinette who he really is.”

Fu shook his head. “Not if you’re in the Miracle Box. Now that Hawk Moth is no longer a threat, at least at present, all the Miraculouses will need to be returned to me.”

“About that,” Keva said, drawing all eyes to her. “That’s why the others are here. They want to talk to you.”

#

Nathaniel rubbed his sweaty palms on his jeans. He knew he wasn’t alone here, but so much was riding on him being able to convince Master Fu to keep the Miraculouses in play instead of putting them back in the box. His friends were so hopeful for it, almost desperate, but that paled in comparison to the need to change the future. He hadn’t forgotten the promise he’d made to future Rose. If he couldn’t convince Fu now, then his whole time as White Rabbit would have been a waste—because even if it had led to the surrender of Hawk Moth, that was nothing compared to what was coming.

The door opened, and Black Tom gave him a nod before moving aside to let Nathaniel in. Once Nathaniel had entered the room, Black Tom and Ladybird went into the tight hall to wait with Adrien and Marinette.

Fu was sitting at the table, so Nathaniel steeled himself and sat across from him.

“What do you have to tell me, Nathaniel?” Fu asked kindly.

Nathaniel dug in his pocket and pulled out folded pieces of paper. He carefully opened and smoothed them out on the table.

Fu looked at them and frowned. “What is this?”

“This is the future,” Nathaniel said. He pointed to two of the pages, where he’d drawn several sketches of the lizard aliens. “This is an alien race which will conquer Earth a hundred years from now.” Off of Fu’s shocked and confused look, Nathaniel pointed to the other paper, where he’d drawn a rough sketch of the ruined Paris he’d seen in his second outing. He wasn’t as good at landscapes as he was people, but he trusted that he’d captured it well enough. “And this is the war that makes the Earth so easy for them to conquer.”

Fu stared at the pages, looking from one to the next like he couldn’t believe what Nathaniel was telling him.

“This is why the Miraculouses can’t go back in the box, Master Fu. I don’t know why they weren’t used to prevent these parts of the future, but from what I learned, in the previous timeline, after the heroes gave up their Miraculouses and Hawk Moth gave up trying to get them, no one ever saw the heroes again. Something must have happened to you or the Miracle Box in that time, and I have no idea what it was. But while I agree with the others that we shouldn’t change more of Louis and Keva’s time than we have to, the time beyond that _must_ be changed.”

The expression on Fu’s face slowly shifted from shock to concern as he examined the drawings. “The Rabbit Miraculous exists for a reason, but that reason is usually left up to its chosen owners to decide.”

“Oh.” Nathaniel drooped a little at that. Honesty compelled him to confess, “I don’t think I’m really meant to be the owner of the Rabbit Miraculous. I only got it because Alix wasn’t healthy enough when they needed her, and I’m not sure I have what it takes to use it long-term even if I could.”

Fu’s eyes rose to where Fluff hovered near Nathaniel’s shoulder. “What do you think, Fluff? Has Nathaniel been a good owner?”

“Good as any,” Fluff said, bouncing. “Better than some.”

Fu shrugged. “It might be true that you would be a better match for a different Miraculous, but that doesn’t mean you were not a legitimate owner of this one. No one is a perfect Miraculous owner who never makes mistakes and always gets things right. Not even Ladybug.”

Nathaniel blushed slightly that anyone would even compare him to Ladybug, though he knew she would agree with Fu. “Then does that mean you believe me, Master? That we need to change the future I saw?”

Fu frowned. “Do you know how that future might be changed?”

“I do, but I think Marinette can explain it better.”

“Then put those drawings away and let her in.”

#

“I know this might sound crazy,” Marinette said, though she knew that probably wasn’t a great way to sell her idea, “but I think we should keep an entire team of superheroes on standby. Permanently.”

Master Fu gave her a blank, uncomprehending look. The others around the table seemed to be in agreement with her—Nathaniel was nodding and Adrien was grinning, and Ladybird and Black Tom just waited in silence—but she hadn’t told any of them the full extent of her idea. It was so extreme, she was afraid even they would think it was stupid.

“You want to keep the team you have once Ladybird and Black Tom return to their time?” Fu asked.

“Not exactly.”

Adrien raised an eyebrow at her. “You don’t?”

Marinette shook her head. “Nathaniel didn’t tell us the details, but it sounds like whatever threat there is in the future is huge. I think”—she took a deep breath—“I think we should have a _full_ team. As in, _all_ the Miraculouses.”

Fu looked at her like she was crazy. “All of them?”

Marinette nodded. “Empty the box.”

Fu sputtered in horror. Adrien giggled in delight. Nathaniel gaped at Marinette, but his eyes lit up eagerly.

“It’s unheard of!” Fu finally spat out.

Longg agreed. “There had never been a full set of Miraculouses active at the same time, much less on a permanent basis.”

“That doesn’t mean there can’t be,” Nathaniel pointed out. “Maybe in the future I saw, the Miraculouses vanished because no one thought to take them out and distribute them before something happened to them or they got lost, and then they weren’t available when they were needed. We can’t change the future by doing things the way they’ve always been done.”

“Yeah, Master Fu,” said Adrien. “Think outside the box.”

Marinette elbowed him. “We wouldn’t actually use them. Maybe occasionally, but not like we do now. We’d just keep them so that we had a full team of superheroes ready for action if a super-level threat showed up.”

“How long are you thinking of keeping them?” Fu asked. “Your whole lives?”

“Only until we aren’t able to be heroes anymore.”

“And who will choose your replacements? Are you willing to be the new Guardian after all?”

“No,” Marinette answered. “With my plan, each person would choose their own replacement when the time came, but the team would always stay in communication with each other, even as people are replaced. Most likely, people would probably pass their Miraculouses down to their kids, or someone else they and others on the team trust.”

Fu had gone goggle-eyed again. “You mean every member of the team would be a Guardian?”

“No. I mean there would be no Guardian.”

Fu gasped and fell backward like he was about to actually pass out, but he caught himself.

“Are you all right, Master Fu?” Adrien asked.

“No Guardian?” Fu gasped. “It’s unheard of.”

Marinette smirked at the old man. “You sound like my grandpa. ‘That’s not how it’s done!’ Sometimes we have to change how it’s done to adapt as needs change, Master.”

“But no Guardians? There have always been Guardians!”

“It would definitely be an experiment,” Marinette acknowledged. “We could stay in contact with the Order of Guardians, now that they’re back after getting eaten by that sentimonster. We could report directly to them. Hopefully, they’d see that our way works and would want to create permanent reserve teams in other parts of the world, too.”

Nathaniel nodded enthusiastically at that suggestion. “That would be great! The threat I saw wasn’t just to Paris. It affected the whole world. If we could convince these Guardians to put permanent superhero teams in other countries, too, I’m sure that would help.”

Fu put a hand to his head and tried to steady himself. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing.”

“Master Fu,” Adrien said, his tone soft and gentle, “think about it. If you didn’t have to be Guardian, what would you do with the rest of your life?”

A far-off, hopeful look came into Fu’s eyes. “Marianne.”

Marinette leaned over to put her hand on Fu’s. “She’s been waiting for you for so long.”

Fu breathed a long, heavy sigh. “I need to talk it over with the kwamis. Everyone but Ladybird and Black Tom, wait outside.”

Marinette, Adrien, and Nathaniel waited in the cramped hallway, too nervous and eager to even talk amongst themselves. It seemed like hours, but eventually the door opened, and they were all let back into the room.

Once they were all seated around the table, Fu said, “The kwamis and I are in agreement. In order to save the Earth in the future, we must try something that has never been tried before. There are risks to this plan, and it could end up leading to its own bad end, but Nathaniel has convinced me that we must at least try to avoid the distant future he witnessed. You may have your reserve team of superheroes, Marinette. Choose them wisely.”

“Woo-hoo!” Adrien cheered.

Nathaniel put a hand on his chest in relief.

Marinette beamed, hardly able to believe her crazy plan had actually been approved. “Really? For real?”

“Yes,” Fu said. “You’ve been an excellent Ladybug so far, Marinette, and possibly the best Miraculous user I’ve ever known or heard of. You are not perfect, and you sometimes make mistakes, but your ideas are usually on the right track. With Adrien by your side to help correct you when you go wrong—as well as your other friends—I believe that if anyone will be able to make such an unorthodox plan work, it will be you and those you choose.”

Ladybird and Black Tom hadn’t offered any opinion on her plan at all, and suddenly she worried what they thought. “Is this okay with you two?” she asked them. “We want to change the more distant future, but we still don’t want to change your past too much.”

“I’m not worried,” said Ladybird.

“I’m sure it’ll change our past a little,” Black Tom said with a small smile. “But hopefully not too much. Not if you all really do stay as reserves rather than active heroes unless you’re needed. In our time, there were no heroes—which isn’t that much different from there being heroes who never transform unless they’re really, really needed, so that no one knows they’re around. Right?”

He had a point. The best way to maintain their past would be to make sure the continued existence of superheroes remained a secret—which meant no transforming and running around just for the fun of it. Or anything else that might constitute selfish use of superpowers.

There was definitely a lot about this that still needed to be figured out.

Black Tom and Ladybird got to their feet. “If you guys don’t need us anymore, we should probably head back home.”

The rest of them got up, as well. “I’m sorry for making you guys come back in time to help us out,” Marinette told them. “We should have been able to take care of it ourselves.”

“Are you kidding?” asked Ladybird. “This has been the most amazing experience of my life!”

“Yeah, same,” said Black Tom. “It’s been absolutely wild and a little terrifying, but I’m glad it happened.”

Adrien moved closer to them, standing beside Marinette. “We know you guys in the future, right? Nathaniel said our future selves both vouched for you. Do you think we’ll still know you in the future? We haven’t changed that part, have we?”

“Well, I can’t say anything for certain,” Black Tom hedged, probably playing it safe because Adrien really shouldn’t have even asked the question, “but my guess would be that we’ll still know you.”

“Awesome,” said Adrien. “You guys did a great job on the team. I hope us knowing you in the future means you’ll get to be on the team again some time, now that there’ll be a team.”

Ladybird and Black Tom exchanged a curious glance. “Yeah,” Black Tom said. “That _would_ be cool. I kinda can’t wait to see how that plays out.”

“At least we won’t have to wait as long as they will,” Ladybird told him, with a head twitch toward Adrien and Marinette.

Adrien gave both of them a hug. “You’ll come talk to us once you get back to the future, right?”

“Absolutely,” Black Tom said.

Marinette gave them both hugs, too. She wanted to say more about the future, but she was afraid of learning anything else about them. They’d already done more to change Black Tom and Ladybird’s past than they probably should have. Marinette felt like her brain was on the edge of a discovery that would change it even more, and she had to fight to pull herself back from it. She might have to fight to pull Adrien back from it, too, if he tried to ask more questions even after their replacements were gone. But hopefully the new reserve team thing would be enough excitement to take his mind off of it. Marinette was sure it would be enough to occupy _her_ mind for a while.

Nathaniel transformed into White Rabbit. “We’ll have to find a place that’s safe to travel to. I have no idea what this part of the sewer looks like in the future.”

“All right,” said Marinette. “We’ll wait here. Just don’t forget to bring our Miraculouses back with you.”

White Rabbit smiled. “Yeah, it’d be embarrassing if I left them in the future.”

With one last goodbye and a quick group selfie from Adrien, the three superheroes left, and Marinette settled in for more tea. Adrien and Marinette freed the kwamis from the box so they could all talk about possible new team assignments and recruits, and Fu went off to a corner of the room hidden behind a screen, saying something about doing work on the Peacock Miraculous.


	119. Chapter 119

Even though they had the ability to return to the exact moment they’d left, Black Tom and Ladybird opted to return to a later date that would account for the time they’d spent in the past, so their biological ages would be no different than they should have been. Not that a few weeks mattered that much, but it just seemed like the right thing to do, given how long they’d been away.

“Do you think we missed our graduation?” Black Tom asked as they stepped out of the Burrow.

“We missed the party, at least,” Ladybird said unhappily.

They were standing in a narrow alley between buildings. It had been evening when they’d left, but judging by the sun, it was mid-day now. After glancing around to make sure there was no one nearby, White Rabbit detransformed. Black Tom and Ladybird followed suit.

As Nathaniel took a baby carrot from his pocket to feed Fluff, Tikki and Plagg said their goodbyes to Keva and Louis.

“You did amazing, Keva,” Tikki said.

“You did okay, Kitten,” Plagg said.

Louis gave the black kwami a love tap on the head with his finger. “You’re annoying most of the time, Plagg.”

“Same to you.”

“I don’t know how Dad puts up with you.”

“Right back atcha. The screaming. Oh, the screaming.”

It was, Louis reflected, a very good thing that people usually couldn’t remember having been an infant. He’d seen and heard things that would embarrass him for the rest of his life. “Anyway.”

“We shouldn’t see any more of this time,” said Tikki. “I hope we know you both now that things are changed, though. Say goodbye, Plagg.”

“Goodbye for now,” Plagg said, a bit grumpily.

Tikki gave Keva one last cheek snuggle, and Plagg surprised Louis by giving him one, too. Then Louis and Keva took off the Miraculouses, and the kwamis disappeared.

“Thanks for a wild time, Uncle Nathaniel,” Keva said as she handed him the earrings.

“That sounds so weird,” Nathaniel told her.

“Better get used to it,” Louis said.

Nathaniel put the two Miraculouses securely in an inner pocket of his jacket. “I can stick around to find out how much we ended up changing if you want. I don’t want to abandon you in a strange world if everything turned out wrong.”

Louis peeked around the corner of the building. “Everything looks like I remember. Whoa.” Dizziness suddenly slammed into him. He swayed, bracing himself on the corner of the building. Keva did the same thing.

“What’s wrong?” Nathaniel asked urgently. “Are you okay?”

“My head, it’s just . . . ” Louis leaned against the wall, his hand to his forehead.

“Yeah,” Keva agreed, panting.

“What, guys?!” Nathaniel yelped.

“It’s okay. I think.” Louis straightened and shook his head. “I just got the most extreme sense of disorientation. For a second, it felt like I was in two places at once.”

“Me, too.” Keva took a deep breath. “I could have sworn I was just in my apartment, making a sandwich, even though I know I wasn’t.”

Louis nodded. “And I was washing my hands in the bathroom. You don’t think . . . ” He met Keva’s eyes and knew they were thinking the same thing.

“Did we just merge with ourselves from this time?” she asked.

They looked to Nathaniel, but he appeared even more confused than them. “ _I_ don’t know how this stuff works!”

Louis tried to think it over, but it was hard. The sense of disorientation had lessened, but it was still there in the back of his mind. When he thought back to his adventure in the past, things were clear, but when he tried to think of his life in the present, some of the memories were fuzzy. Like an image with another layered over the top—similar but not quite the same—so it was hard to tell what was really there. “Maybe it’s because we came back to the time we would have been in if we hadn’t left. We never left from this timeline, so our other selves were still here, and time had to correct itself.”

“Is that how it happens?” Keva asked.

Louis shrugged. “Maybe?”

Nathaniel frowned. “Why hasn’t it happened before?”

“Maybe it’s because we’re essentially the correct versions of ourselves for this specific point in time. Or maybe the Miraculouses protect people from merging, and that’s why it didn’t happen when Dad went back to stop Timejumper. All I know is I _know_ I spent the last several weeks in the past . . . but I’m also sure I was here. I remember graduating and the party we had.”

“Me, too,” Keva said. “Your grandparents made everyone a red velvet cake. Clarisse demanded the piece with the most frosting. Esmé, Joni, and I beat you, Emma, and Hugo at charades.”

“You cheated,” Louis said before he was even conscious of the memory, but as soon as he said it, the whole event snapped into focus. “I heard Joni whispering.”

He stared at Keva in wonder.

“Um, are you guys okay?” Nathaniel asked. “What do you remember about your life before I showed up?”

Louis concentrated on that day. He still clearly remembered finding White Rabbit and taking him to the Gabriel building. He remembered listening at the door and discovering the huge secret his parents had been hiding. But there was also a fuzz of ordinary daily memories over the top of it. Bringing the cake to the building alone, helping round up the rowdy kids, then going on to his fitting without anything memorable happening.

And before that . . . things still felt pretty blurry and duplicated, but nothing seemed to have changed much. “I think we did it,” Louis said. “I think we managed to keep things pretty much the same.”

“Is it like what Adrien described after retrieving Timejumper?” Nathaniel asked. “He said it was like he had two sets of memories of that time.”

“Yeah,” Louis said. “It’s like that.”

Keva was the first one to remember the biggest change. “Kwamis,” she blurted. “Trixx and Wayzz. I’ve known them my whole life. How could I have forgotten them? No, wait . . . ”

Like the flash of fireworks bursting in the sky, Louis’s memories came alive with new additions. Plagg and Tikki. They’d been there all along. Birthday parties, movie nights, daily meals and even while he was doing homework. Like Keva, he wondered how he ever could have forgotten friends—family members, really—who’d been there every day of his life. Except he knew they hadn’t been. Not before.

He remembered meeting them for the first time, and he had a hard time remembering life without them.

This was all exceptionally confusing.

But that was his and Keva’s problem to work out. He pulled himself together and laid a hand on Nathaniel’s shoulder. “We’ll take it from here, kid. You can go back and tell our parents that the plan worked. As long as they do exactly whatever they’re planning to do, everything will turn out fine.”

Nathaniel looked relieved but not entirely convinced. “You’re sure?”

“As sure as I can be with something this crazy. Keva?”

She nodded. “Yeah. I think you’re right. It’s not exactly how we left it, but we knew it wouldn’t be. I definitely think it’s close enough, though.”

“Good,” Nathaniel breathed. “I’m really glad. I guess I should leave before my presence messes anything up, then. Thank you guys so much for your help. I . . . guess I’ll see you soon?”

Louis grinned. “Yeah.”

He stood in the alley with Keva until the Burrow had closed behind White Rabbit. All at once, everything was back to normal.

But it also wasn’t. Not at all.

“ _Wh_ _o_ _oo_.” Keva let out a loud rush of breath. “It’s been a busy day, hasn’t it?”

Louis pointed at the sky, where the sun was still high overhead. “And it’s not even over. I think we’re gonna get jet lag.”

Keva laughed. “Yeah, probably. You did grab my notebook before we left, right?”

Not knowing if they would be allowed to bring their phones back to the present with them, Keva had been making all kinds of notes on paper. “Of course.” He jostled the bag slung across his shoulder to emphasize his point. “But you know you can’t actually write an article on what happened.”

“Maybe I can,” she argued. “I’m gonna write it anyway. It’s just a matter of whether our parents will let me publish it anywhere.”

He knew that trying to stop Keva from writing about whatever she wanted to was like trying to stop her from breathing, so he just shrugged. “Doesn’t hurt to ask, I guess.”

They strolled out onto the street and headed down the sidewalk toward their apartments, comparing notes about their memories. Every time one of them brought up a certain event, Louis’s memory of it either remained exactly the same or changed in some relatively minor way, the new memory layering in over the earlier one. He could still remember both versions if he focused, but he had a feeling that with time, the new memories would likely become more prominent and he’d have to work harder and harder to recall the original version.

It didn’t bother him. He was far more interested in looking to the future than the past, anyway.

Keva’s apartment was closest. When they got there, a sandwich was still sitting, half-made, on the counter.

“This is creepy,” she said.

“Yeah,” Louis agreed.

Keva found her phone on the counter. “At least no one noticed me disappear.”

There was a strange eeriness about the whole thing, so Louis dug her things out of the bag and handed them over, then they went to his apartment.

He dropped the bag with his things from the past on the bed. He actually had brought his ‘Black Tom’ phone with him. It was extremely tempting to send a group text to the team, but even if none of them had changed their numbers, he really doubted they’d have bothered continuing to pay for his service. Sure enough, when he checked the screen, he saw that it wasn’t connected to a network.

_Too bad_ , he thought. Then again, it wouldn’t have been worth it if he couldn’t see the looks on their faces.

His present-day phone was missing. Maybe it was in the bathroom where he—the other him—had disappeared from. Focusing, he remembered that he’d been at Gabriel, taking a break during a shoot. Which meant people were probably scrambling to figure out where he’d gone.

Going back out to his living room, he told Keva, “We should probably head to the Gabriel building. I was in the middle of a shoot. And we need to check in with my parents, anyway.”

“I figured,” Keva said, turning toward the door.

He caught her wrist. “One thing first, though.” Then he pressed her up against the nearest wall, took her face in his hands, and kissed her. Deeply. Passionately. Heat flared through his whole body, and his mind went utterly blank.

Keva fisted her hands in his hair and kissed him back with equal eagerness.

Louis’s relationship with kissing up to this point was not what anyone would consider normal for a guy his age. Having basically been in love with Keva since he was old enough to notice girls, he’d never had any romantic—or other—interest in anyone else. While some guys wouldn’t have a problem with making out with one girl when they were in love with another, Louis had always been a one-woman man. Or one-girl boy.

Which wasn’t to say he’d never kissed a girl. He’d just never _kissed_ a girl. Up until today, kissing had only been an occasional part of his job as a model and sometimes actor. Mildly pleasant, but devoid of any real emotion, and always purely for the camera. In this way, he’d kissed girls he’d worked with for years and girls he’d just met. He’d even kissed Coccinelle, who he thought of as a little sister, and Clarisse, who he didn’t even like. Even the kiss from Keva earlier in the day (or twenty-one years ago, depending on perspective) had been so brief and unexpected that the main thing he remembered feeling was amazement.

But even though they’d quickly been distracted by a series of much more pressing issues, he hadn’t forgotten about the life-changing revelation that she reciprocated his feelings. And now that things had settled just a little, dealing with that was his top priority.

And that started with what he would always think of as his first real, proper kiss.

When they were both breathless, Louis broke the kiss and pressed his forehead to hers. “Marry me, Keva,” he gasped.

She huffed an airy laugh. “Moving a little fast there, aren’t we, pretty boy?”

“Are you kidding?” He tried to look into her eyes, but her glasses had fogged up, so he took them off and slid them into her shirt pocket. She was near-sighted, and he was close enough for her to see him clearly without them. “I’ve already waited my whole life to marry you. I don’t want to wait anymore.”

She pulled her head back enough to put a couple inches between them. “Your whole life? You definitely weren’t waiting to marry me when you were a baby. You were barely even aware of my presence.”

He groaned, not really able to refute that point because they’d both seen the truth of her statement firsthand. “Fine. I’ve waited . . . ”—he thought back—“nine years to marry you.”

“Oh?”

“We were twelve. Clarisse was bullying Coccinelle because she’d gotten a gig Clarisse had wanted. You bitch-slapped Clarisse so hard, she wasn’t able to work for a month.”

Keva grinned at the memory. “And I got grounded for two.”

“That was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Keva barked a laugh. “You’ve got issues, dude.” She was still trapped between him and the wall, and he wasn’t giving her any room. She didn’t seem to mind.

He placed his hands lightly on her waist. “You know, when a guy says something romantic like, ‘I’ve been waiting my whole life for you,’ you’re supposed to, like, swoon or something, not fact-check him.”

She put her hands on his waist, pulling him just a little closer. “I’ve still got you beat, pretty boy. I’ve loved you since we were eleven.”

Louis still had a very hard time believing that. His disbelief must have shown on his face.

“It was that spring fashion spread. With the feathers.”

“Feathers?”

“Sounds like we both have some weird kinks.”

She was trying to make him blush again. It was working. He could feel the heat rising in his face. But he wasn’t going to let her win this time.

He leaned closer until his mouth was at her ear, close enough that his thighs pressed against hers and his lips brushed her ear as he whispered, “My only kink is you, Keva. Every breath you take, every aspect of your personality, every inch of your body is my kink.”

When he pulled back enough to see her face, he was met with the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen: Keva with her eyes and mouth open in shock, a blush covering her entire face.

_Score._ He grinned, put a finger to her chin to close her mouth for her, and pressed a soft, sweet, lingering kiss to her her lips.

“So,” he murmured against her mouth, “about the marriage thing. Do you want to stop waiting or what?”

He felt her smile even as he saw it light up her eyes. “Yeah, all right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was going to be a long chapter, but this was all I was able to get done today. Meaning we're not at the end of seeing how the future goes quite yet.


	120. Chapter 120

As much as Louis wanted to spend time with Keva and enjoy the fact that his primary life’s dream had been realized, they really did need to talk to some people. He couldn’t even afford to hold her hand on the way to the Gabriel building, or it would be all over social media before they even reached their destination, and that wasn’t how he wanted anyone they knew to find out they’d gotten together.

The lobby was empty, as usual, but as they crossed it, one of the junior photographers emerged from the left side hallway.

“Louis!” the photographer shouted across the distance between them. “Where did you run off to? We’re in the middle of a shoot!”

Louis and Keva paused and let the photographer approach. He was an Asian guy around their age, with a neat and stylish appearance. The only way Louis knew he was a junior photographer was because of the camera around his neck and the color of his employee badge, or Louis would have assumed he was one of the designers.

“Well?” the photographer asked when he reached them. “What do you have to say for yourself?” Although his French was fluent, he had a distinct Japanese accent. And he was being awfully bold, scolding Gabriel’s top model like this.

“Do I . . . know you?” Louis asked. There was something vaguely familiar about the guy. Louis thought he’d met him at some kind of fancy business party once.

The photographer smirked in a way that was half-amused, half-exasperated. “Louis, I know you’re jealous of me because you haven’t inherited a kwami yet and I have, but there’s no need to be childish.”

Suddenly, fresh memories snapped into place over the older ones, and a name came to mind. “Sorry, Shigure,” Louis said, feeling as stupid as if he’d momentarily forgotten the word ‘fork’. _Of course_ he knew Shigure. Shigure Kasahara was the son of his parents’ friend Kagami and the grandson of one of his grandfather’s closest foreign business associates. Shigure had come to live in Paris full-time three years ago, after the Order of Guardians had approved Kagami to create a reserve Miraculous team in Tokyo. Kagami had taken the Tanuki Miraculous and had told Shigure that if he wanted the Dragon Miraculous and Longg, he had to live in Paris because she thought it needed to be returned to its own set. As a person, Shigure was a little odd and had been very stiff and formal when he’d arrived, but Adrien had encouraged Louis to try to make friends with him, and in doing so Louis had learned that Shigure was actually a pretty cool guy.

Keva hugged Louis’s arm like she usually did—just a quick squeeze to make him flustered. It didn’t work as well as it used to, but Louis could tell she was playing normal for Shigure’s sake. She must have recovered new memories of him, as well. “I needed him for something. Sorry he had to bail on you guys.”

Shigure frowned and eyed the two of them. “They’re waiting for you in wardrobe,” he told Louis. “We’re already an hour behind schedule.”

Now that he remembered who he was, Louis noticed that Shigure had subtly coordinated his entire outfit to match his Miraculous—a choker made of a thin, leather-looking cord with a small, green ball in the center, which could have looked too feminine or out of place on a less stylish guy.

“Can you tell them I’m gonna be a little longer?” Louis asked. “I _really_ need to go talk to my parents real quick.”

Shigure crossed his arms, his scowl deepening. “You have obligations, Louis.”

“I know,” Louis said. “And I’ll get back as soon as I can. But this has to do with . . . more important obligations.”

Shigure must have picked up on the implied Miraculous involvement, because his scowl softened. Even though Louis could see that Shigure wanted to ask for details, he didn’t. Louis couldn’t blame him for his curiosity. How could a person without a Miraculous have those sorts of obligations? But finally, Shigure said, “Very well. I’ll let everyone know.”

“Thanks, Shigure. And, uh, did anyone happen to find my phone?”

Without changing expression, Shigure reached into his back pocket and handed Louis his phone.

Louis grabbed it and headed for the elevators with Keva, waving goodbye to Shigure. “Thanks! See you later!”

Once he was in the elevator, he called Sebastien.

“What is it, Louis?”

“Is Dad in his office?”

“Yes.”

“Any chance Mom’s there too?”

“She was, but she’s just leaving.” After a beat, he added, “She heard me and has stopped. Do you need her?”

“Yes,” Louis said. “I need to talk to both of them.”

Sebastien didn’t bother covering the phone when he said, “Louis would like to speak with you and Adrien.”

Faintly, Louis heard his mother ask, “Is it important?”

“Yes!” Louis said, not waiting for Sebastien to repeat the question. “It’s very important.”

“He says it is,” said Sebastien. “All right, she’s returning to Adrien’s office. Are you close?”

“I’m in the elevator.” As Louis said it, the elevator came to a stop, and the doors opened. He hung up and put the phone in his pocket, hurrying with Keva down the long hallway.

Sebastien was standing outside Adrien’s office. When Louis and Keva approached, he raised an eyebrow at them.

They would tell him about the engagement later, but for now, Louis just said, “Thanks, Uncle Baz,” as they went into the office and closed the door behind them.

Louis and Keva found themselves alone in his dad’s huge office with his parents. It was a relief to see them as he remembered them again, but also oddly weird after being around their younger selves for weeks. He couldn’t help it; he strode over to them and pulled them both into a tight hug.

“Louis?” Marinette asked. “Everything okay?”

When Louis released them from the hug, he noticed that Tikki and Plagg had come out and were watching him with curiosity and concern.

Louis hadn’t really planned out how he was going to do this or what he was going to say to them first. He’d expected that the right thing would come to him in the moment, but now that the moment was here, he was still unsure.

He glanced beside him at Keva, but she was looking at him like she expected him to make the first move.

Right. Well, these were _his_ parents.

Louis cleared his throat. “Everything’s good, Mom. Dad. Everything’s, uh . . . well, great, actually.” He grabbed Keva’s hand and blurted, “Keva and I are engaged!”

Marinette’s mouth fell open. “Whaaaaaaaaa?”

Adrien threw his hands up and cheered. “Yay! Wait. I just saw you two hours ago. When did this happen?!”

“When did you even tell her how you feel?” Marinette demanded.

Keva wasn’t helping. All she was doing was laughing.

“Uh . . . it’s complicated?”

“Last I heard, you were convinced she didn’t see you that way,” Marinette pressed. “Now you’ve moved from confessing to engaged so quickly that no one even knew about it? What happened?”

“Uh . . . ” Louis’s brain was not working quickly enough for him right now.

Keva nudged his side. “Maybe get to the other part. Then they’ll get it.”

“Ah, yeah, I guess we could.” Louis took a step closer to Adrien. “Dad, could I . . . borrow your Miraculous for a sec?”

It was a weirdly personal request, even between family members, like asking the password for his personal e-mail account. And it was one Louis had never made before. But it said a lot about the strength of their relationship that Adrien only hesitated a moment before glancing to Plagg.

In turn, Plagg looked to Louis.

“I think you can put up with me for a minute,” Louis told him with a wink.

A slow smile spread across Plagg’s face. “It’s fine, Adrien.”

Clearly still wondering what was up, Adrien slid the Miraculous off his finger, and Plagg disappeared.

Louis took it and put it on, and Plagg popped back into the air.

“Plagg,” Louis said, “claws out.”

With a flash of magic, Louis transformed.

Adrien’s jaw dropped, and his eyes almost bugged out of their sockets. “Black Tom?” he asked, his voice a shocked squeak.

Behind him, Marinette _fwump_ ed onto Adrien’s desk as if her knees had given out. For a second, she stared in stunned silence, then she began to laugh softly. Then more loudly, pressing her hand to her forehead. “Of course it’s you.”

Adrien’s head swiveled from Marinette to Black Tom and back. “You knew?!”

Marinette got up from the desk and came closer to Black Tom. “No. But I would have if I’d let myself.” She wrapped Black Tom in a tight hug, which he returned. “Oh, my Louis. Good job, son. Thank you.”

Black Tom pulled back from her. “You remember sending me?”

“No. But I remember hearing about how I did, and it all makes sense now. Of course it was you I’d send. It couldn’t have been anyone else.”

Suddenly, Adrien pulled him into a crushing hug. “Little Bun, I can’t believe it was you. I’m so proud of you.” It sounded like he was crying.

While his dad was still squeezing him, Black Tom saw his mom’s attention shift to Keva. “Which means you must have been Ladybird.”

Keva grinned. “Yep.”

Unable to hold it in any longer, Tikki squealed with happiness and flew circles around Keva before bumping affectionately into her cheek. Keva held up her hand, and Tikki gave her a tiny high five.

“We’ve been waiting for this,” said Tikki. “We knew it would happen soon.”

“Of course,” said Marinette. “You and Plagg knew all this time, didn’t you?”

“Yep!” Tikki clearly had no remorse about keeping it secret from them.

Adrien laughed and gave Keva a big hug, too. “I still can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner. You two are just like them. Like _you_.” He let Keva go, but he was apparently still very much in hug mode, because he came behind Marinette and wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on her shoulder. “So that’s when you guys finally realized how you felt about each other.”

“Yeah,” Black Tom said. “Claws in.”

He detransformed, and Plagg zipped out of the ring and into the air. “It’s about time, Kitten. I kept forgetting which version of you I was talking to.”

Adrien shot him a lukewarm glare. “How could you keep something so important secret from me, Plagg?”

“You know I had to, kid,” Plagg said unapologetically.

Adrien did know, because he didn’t try to argue the point.

Marinette was frowning at Louis and Keva. “So, what exactly happened? I mean, when did you leave? How long have you been gone?”

Louis rubbed the back of his neck. “The time-travel stuff is kind of confusing. But we left from our original timeline, you know, and then we came back to this one. Even though in this one, we’d never left. So I think we sort of merged with ourselves. I remember talking to you a couple hours ago, Dad, but I also know that a couple hours ago, relatively speaking, I was still back in the past. It’s like I have—”

“Two sets of memories?” Adrien asked.

“Yeah. But for, like, my whole life.”

Adrien straightened. “But you’re still the same person, right? You’re still our Louis?”

“Of course I am! I’m the same person. I’ve just . . . lived two versions of the same life up to now.”

Keva said, “It’s pretty messed up, but we’re the same people. If we were different, we might not have merged with the other versions of ourselves when we came back from the past.”

“Remember that day when I picked up the cake for your office party?” Louis said to Marinette. “That was the day, in the original timeline, when I found White Rabbit and you sent us back. In this timeline, that didn’t happen. I remember everything that happened in the past, but I also remember everything that happened here between that day and now.”

“This is so weird,” Adrien breathed.

Tikki said, “Humans aren’t meant to travel through time the way you two did, so your brains will have to work to compensate for the blended memories.”

“We won’t forget what happened in the past, will we?” Louis asked.

Tikki shook her head. “I don’t think so. That was distinct and memorable enough, and a short enough time, that your brains should be able to compartmentalize them separately from your memories of what happened here in this timeline. But the duplicated memories from your life before that could be different. Tell me, did you succeed in keeping the timeline nearly the same as the one you left?”

Louis nodded. “Yeah, it’s almost identical. As near as I can tell, the only thing that’s different is having you kwamis around. Which is a positive change, for sure.”

“Not quite the _only_ change,” Keva pointed out, meaning Shigure.

But Louis didn’t really think there was any point getting into that, especially since he hadn’t known Shigure in the other timeline well enough to have any idea how him coming to live in Paris might have changed his life—other than the fact that he had a kwami now—and the difference had been a choice he’d been given the option to make, not something forced on him. “True, but this timeline’s like ninety-five percent the same as the one we left. At least as far as we’ve been able to figure out so far.”

“Let us know if you find out any significant differences,” Marinette said, concerned. “Especially negative ones.”

“I’m sure it’s fine, Mom.”

“Since everything’s mostly the same,” Tikki said, “then most likely your brains will prioritize the memories that match up with the world you’re currently living in.”

“So the new memories will override the older ones?” Keva asked.

“The older ones should still be there, if you really concentrate,” Tikki guessed, “but the ones from this timeline will likely be more dominant, yes.”

Louis let out a long, slow breath. “This is a lot to deal with.”

“No kidding,” said Adrien. “My head’s still spinning. You were the replacements all along.” He laughed. “And you were even older than us. What was that like for you?”

Louis smirked. “Pretty insane. You guys were still you, but you were also just kids. Hardly normal kids, though. I really underestimated how much faster you guys had to grow up than I did. I about died from guilt when I saw teen Mom with baby me.”

Marinette actually blushed faintly at that. “Oh. Sorry. It must have been really awkward for you.”

He pushed up his sleeve to show the barely-there mark on his upper arm. “And then I gave myself this scar. Even though I knew it was me, I still felt horrible for hurting a baby.”

Her eyebrows coming together, Marinette moved closer and touched his arm. “You didn’t have this before?”

Louis shook his head. “Not until after I scratched myself.”

“So what you did in our time was affecting you even before you returned,” she murmured. “You _were_ the same person, even in the past.”

Adrien made a strangled sound, and Louis looked up to see that his face had gone white. “I . . . I just remembered. Timejumper. You disappeared.”

Louis couldn’t exactly remember his brief period of non-existence, but it was disconcerting even to know it had happened. “Yeah.”

Adrien launched himself toward Louis, gripping him in another tight hug. “I almost lost you.”

Louis let his dad hug him, even though it was so tight he almost couldn’t breathe. He’d had a similar reaction to the event himself, so he couldn’t blame him. “You did lose me. But you got me back.”

Somehow, the hug tightened. “I regret nothing.” It was one of the most serious tones Louis had ever heard from him.

Marinette gently rubbed Adrien’s back until he let go.

Tikki’s cheerful voice helped steer the conversation in a happier direction. “So when did you get engaged? If you just came back today, then didn’t you just learn about your feelings for each other today?”

A smile that was simultaneously self-conscious and shameless curled Louis’s mouth. “Yeah. But, come on. It’s been so long already. Why wait longer?”

Keva took his hand in hers. “After all the work I’ve put in trying to get this boy’s head out of his own butt, I want to lock this in before he talks himself out of it.”

He dropped her hand so he could wrap his arm around her waist and hold her tight against his side. “I’m not going to talk myself out of it. No matter how much you tease me.” He kissed her, then looked back to his parents.

They were wearing identical grins of delight and both making audible squealing noises.

Louis blushed and averted his eyes. “You guys are dorks.”

“Little Bun!” Adrien shouted before both he and Marinette rushed Louis and Keva and wrapped them in a massive group hug that felt like they were being attacked by an octopus.

After a few seconds, Louis heard a soft knock on the door behind him, which gave Tikki and Plagg time to dart into cover before it opened.

“Please forgive the interruption,” said Sebastien, “but I heard strange sounds. Is everything all right?”

Instead of breaking up the hug, Adrien held out an arm. “Wanna get in on this, Sebastien?”

“I’d . . . rather not. . . . What’s going on?”

With a brief pout for effect, Adrien backed away, and the hug broke up. “Do you want to tell him?” he asked Louis.

Louis noticed that Tikki and Plagg remained hidden. Quickly searching his newer memories, Louis recalled that even though most of his generation of the extended family were in the know regarding kwamis, Sebastien was not. Louis remembered Marinette telling him once that secrecy was the default position and the rest of them knew only because their parents had kwamis, so it didn’t make sense to tell Sebastien. (He’d most likely been around kwamis while living at the house with them, but he’d moved to the mansion when he was three—too young to remember them.) Knowing what he did about Sebastien’s parentage, Louis now suspected that Tikki and Plagg had advised that Sebastien not be told because they were wary of what he might do with the information. It wasn’t fair to judge Sebastien based on that, since he’d shown no signs of potential villainy as far as Louis was aware, but Sebastien _was_ an awful lot like both his parents in other ways.

Facing Sebastien, Louis took Keva’s hand and said, “We’ve got big news. Keva and I are engaged!”

Sebastien’s expression didn’t change. Not even a twitch. “Ah.”

“Ah?” repeated Louis. “Is that all you have to say?”

“It’s about time?”

Louis thrust out his arms in exasperation. “Did everyone knew how Keva felt about me but me?”

“Yes,” said Sebastien.

Adrien patted Louis’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, son.”

“For not telling me?”

“For passing on my oblivious gene. Besides, I did try to tell you.”

Louis’s shoulders slumped. “Yeah. More than once.” Including when he’d barely known them.

“The important thing is that you got there eventually,” said Marinette. “Right, Keva?”

“That’s right, Aunt Marinette.”

“Hey, Sebastien?” Louis said. “Could you not tell anyone about this? We want to tell people ourselves.”

“My lips are sealed.”

“Do you know if Grandfather and Grandmother have time for dinner soon?” Louis asked. He felt Keva’s curious gaze on him but ignored it.

Sebastien checked his tablet. Even though he was Adrien’s assistant, not Gabriel’s, all of the top-level people in the company had their schedules on a shared calendar that any of them or their assistants could access. “They could probably be free tomorrow.”

“Can you put in a request for us?”

“You want to tell them personally?” Adrien said. “That’s nice. I’m sure they’ll appreciate that.”

“Yeah.” Louis finally met Keva’s eyes. From the seriousness he saw there, he knew she understood. This meeting was going to be about more than just their engagement. Gabriel knew who they were. As soon as he found out their relationship had taken a sudden leap forward, he would figure out the truth, and he would know that they knew he knew.

As soon as Louis got home, he would need to do some research to prepare for one last chat with Hawk Moth—and decide if the time had come for him to face justice or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There should be one more chapter with Louis, then a wrap-up for the 'present' time. It's several scenes, so I don't know if that will work out to one chapter or more.


	121. Chapter 121

“You guys didn’t have to come with us,” Louis told his parents as they stood on the doorstep of Keva’s parents’ apartment.

“Are you kidding?” said Marinette. “You thought we would miss this?”

Of course they would never have, but having them here still made Louis feel outnumbered.

Nino opened the door. Unfortunately, he was in a good mood. “Hey! A surprise visit!” He gave Keva a quick hug. “To what do we owe the pleasure, firstborn of my loins?”

Keva grimaced. “Ew. Dad. Don’t say ‘loins’.”

Nino ignored her. “And my future son-in-law! We haven’t seen you in weeks.”

Louis rolled his eyes. Nino had been teasing him with the ‘future son-in-law’ thing for as long as he could remember. When he was a kid, Louis hadn’t really understood what the words had meant. When he was a teen, he’d assumed it was because Nino could tell how Louis felt about Keva. Now, Louis wondered if Nino had been unsubtly hinting about Keva’s feelings and Louis had just been too dense to notice.

Behind him, Marinette giggled, and Adrien said, “Hey, we’re here, too!”

“I was getting to you!” Nino stepped out of the doorway so Louis and Keva could enter, then grabbed Adrien and Marinette in a quick double hug as they came in. “How’s my best bud and his lady?”

“Same as yesterday,” Adrien said. “Actually, even better.”

“Where’s Alya?” Marinette asked.

They all moved into the living room. As soon as the door was closed, Tikki and Plagg came out, and Plagg bee-lined for the kitchen. Tikki followed to try to keep him in line while blurs of green and orange zipped through the air to meet them.

“In her office, finishing up some work,” said Nino. “There’s some article she wanted to get up today. Esmé’s at rugby practice, and Joni’s out with friends, so they’ll both probably be a while. Can I get anyone anything?”

Nino got refreshments, and they all hung out in the living room and chatted. He didn’t ask again why they were there, and Louis couldn’t tell if Nino had forgotten he’d asked or if he’d just assumed they were there for a friendly visit. Louis mostly listened as Nino talked about his current projects (he was doing sound design for a zombie movie and had a DJ gig scheduled for the weekend), grateful not to hear anything too unexpected, until Alya came out of her office.

After another round of hugs and greetings, Alya said, “Okay, spill. What’s up?”

“What makes you think something’s up?” asked Keva.

Alya pointed at Marinette and Adrien. “I can tell when those two are trying to hide something, and they’re not even trying very hard.”

It was true; Louis’s parents couldn’t stop grinning and darting looks between Louis and Keva. The kwamis flew over to spectate, which didn’t help lower suspicion.

Keva glanced at Louis, then turned toward her parents. “It cool if Louis and I get married in a couple weeks?”

They hadn’t discussed the time frame, but Louis was cool with ‘a couple weeks’. He would have been cool with ‘tomorrow’.

“Yes!” Alya punched the air.

“Dude!” Nino shouted. “Finally? For real?”

“Yes,” Louis said, embarrassed. It _was_ a big deal, but for some reason them making a big deal about it made him squirm. Or maybe it was the _way_ they were making a big deal about it. At least it was all positive. When Nick and Renée had gotten engaged, Tom had put on a days-long act of pretending to disapprove of his daughter marrying a celebrity. Which had been admittedly hilarious, all things considered. Especially when Adrien had joined in on the act.

There were hugs and cheers and various celebratory gestures all around, until Nino was hugging Marinette, Alya was hugging Adrien, and Keva and Louis were left standing there like they weren’t even in the room.

“Hey, wait,” Nino said, abruptly breaking away from his hug to look at Keva. “We just saw you three days ago, and you were still complaining about him. When did this happen? _How_ did this happen?”

Keva smirked. “You should know. You were there.”

“Huh?” said Nino.

Alya, on the other hand, let out a loud, “Finally!”

Nino’s confused gaze swiveled to her. “Huh?”

“Wait, you knew?” Adrien asked Alya.

“Knew what?” Nino asked, sounding annoyed that no one was answering his questions.

Marinette looked like she wanted to ask Alya about it too, but instead, she just took off her earrings and handed them to Keva, which only confused Nino more.

But before he could ask, Keva answered his questions by putting on the earrings and saying, “Tikki, spots on.”

Louis watched with great appreciation as the woman he loved turned into a superhero.

Nino pointed at her with both hands and gasped like he was trying to suck all the air in the room into his lungs.

Alya laughed loudly and threw herself on her daughter. “I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! Baby girl, I’m so unbelievably proud of you!”

Nino’s jaw was still on the floor.

Adrien wasn’t letting up on Alya. “Did you know the whole time?” he asked indignantly.

She let Ladybird out of the hug but kept an arm around her. “Yep! Well, pretty much. It wasn’t hard to figure them out when they kept slipping up right after they arrived, even if I wouldn’t know my own kid when I saw her.” She jerked a finger at Louis. “And with that guy’s awkward stuttering around my girl and his bad puns, it was obvious whose kid he was.”

Nino turned his stunned look on Louis. “Y-you? You’re . . . ?”

Louis shrugged. “Yeah. So, we don’t really have to explain how we got together, right?”

After blinking a few times, the wheels in his head turning, Nino said, “Nah, I guess you don’t.” He swooped over to Ladybird and picked her up by the waist to swing her around. “This is awesome! You are awesome! My daughter is awesome!”

Ladybird laughed. “You and Mom are pretty cool yourselves.”

Nino put her back on her feet, and Ladybird detransformed and returned the Miraculous to Marinette.

“Tell us everything!” Nino said, then looked to Marinette. “They can now, right?”

“Yeah, I think so,” she said. “I trust their judgment about it, anyway.”

Nino grabbed his phone. “I’m gonna order dinner. We gotta settle in for this.”

“And I can finally display the most unreal photos I’ve ever taken!” Alya grabbed the large digital photo frame from a side table and played with it. When she set it back down, it was showing a photo of Ladybird holding baby Keva and another of Black Tom holding baby Louis.

“Whoa!” Adrien said in awe, moving closer to the photos.

Marinette looked uncomfortable. “I’m not sure it’s smart to leave that out in the open.”

Louis asked, “Can I get copies of those?”

Nino brought another round of drinks from the kitchen and flopped onto the couch. “Dinner’s on the way. Now start talking.”

#

The Agreste mansion had changed very little over the course of Louis’s life, and it was little different in this timeline than it had been in the previous one. Even what he’d seen of it in the past—the outside, the atelier, the foyer, and the bedroom that had no longer been Adrien’s but wasn’t yet Sebastien’s—hadn’t changed all that much. The bedroom was empty again, Sebastien having moved out on his own after graduating early from college a year ago. Louis hadn’t actually seen what his grandparents had done with the room after that.

When the front door opened, he was greeted by Emilie’s beautiful smile. Louis had always thought his grandmother was the prettiest lady her age that he knew, but only as he got older did he truly appreciate how gracefully she was aging. Most actresses had a hard time getting work by the time they were grandmothers, even if they were popular in their youth, but she had only gotten more and more in-demand as she aged.

“Louis.” Her voice was warm and gentle; hearing it was like slipping into a relaxing bath. She wrapped him in a hug—or he wrapped her. He was a good bit taller than her now, with longer arms, and the comfort he’d felt as a child at being cocooned in her embrace had changed slightly now that he was the one doing the cocooning.

“Hi, Grandmother.” He stepped back, and she gave Keva a hug that was almost as warm. “Thanks for having us over.”

“You’re always welcome.” She stepped aside as they moved further into the foyer, a twinkle in her eye. “The two of you haven’t wanted to come to dinner alone before. Something you have to tell us?”

Louis blushed and hid his face by turning away. His eyes landed on the portrait at the top of the central landing. It was a nice photo, but badly outdated. Gabriel, Emilie, Adrien, and Marinette all looked close enough to how they did now that it made no difference, but Louis and Sebastien had only been ten, and Emma and Hugo were even younger. “You need to update your family portrait, Grandmother,” Louis said, trying to change the topic.

“Maybe we’ll have a reason to soon,” she answered coyly.

_Well, that backfired_ , Louis thought. He didn’t think anyone would have told Emilie about the news, but he didn’t think they’d have needed to. Coming over here alone like this _was_ pretty obvious.

Emilie led them into the dining room, where dinner was already laid out.

Gabriel was standing by the fireplace when they entered. He smiled and came over to them. “Louis. Keva. It’s good to see you.”

The familiar voice sent a strange chill down Louis’s spine, and the smile Gabriel offered was slightly strained.

Louis steeled himself to get through this and took a seat at the table with the rest of them: Gabriel at the head, Emilie on his right, Louis on his left, and Keva on Louis’s other side.

They began the meal, Emilie making polite conversation with Keva for a few minutes, until silence fell.

Louis picked at his food, his stomach too wound up to eat. He needed to get to what he came here for. “I know you’ve already guessed,” he said, watching Gabriel closely, “but we have some news. Keva and I are engaged.”

While Emilie made happy noises and congratulated them, Gabriel hesitated just a second too long before smiling and saying, “I’m happy to hear that. It was only a matter of time.”

Yes. Because Gabriel had known the two of them would end up together ever since he’d handed over his Miraculous to them.

Louis and Gabriel sat with eyes locked on one another as an awkward silence descended on the table. Gabriel’s polite smile never wavered.

Louis was the one to break eye contact, his gaze flicking to Emilie for an instant before returning to Gabriel. “Does she know what you did?”

Gabriel’s smile actually grew a fraction. Was that relief in his expression? “Yes, Louis. I told her everything. Only her.”

From the corner of his eye, Louis caught Emilie’s surprise, and he turned his attention to his grandmother. “And what do you think, Grandmother?”

Emilie’s mouth had formed a small ‘O’. “Is this . . . ?”

“We time-traveled, Mrs. Agreste,” Keva said gently. “Louis and I went to the past. We know your husband was Hawk Moth.”

While understanding and awe settled over Emilie’s face, her eyes grew moist. “I’m so sorry you had to see that. I’m so sorry for what he did for me.”

Pain twisted in Louis’s heart to see her like this. He didn’t want to hurt her by bringing this up, but they had to talk about it. “Is he sorry, though?” He addressed the question to his grandfather.

Gabriel took Emilie’s hand. “If you’re asking me if I regret becoming Hawk Moth, Louis, the answer is no.”

Louis sensed Keva tense beside him, and he put a hand on her leg under the table to try to keep her from an outburst.

“I was afraid of that,” Louis breathed.

Emilie tried to reach for him over the table, but it was too far for her to do more than extend her hand toward him. “Please don’t be angry with him, Louis. He meant well.”

Louis cut a look to his grandfather. “No. He didn’t.” He’d seen the pleasure in Hawk Moth’s face before he’d been convinced that Emilie would be fine. Even if he’d done everything for what some would call a good reason, there was no denying that he’d still enjoyed the power he’d exercised over others.

Still, in the end, he _had_ given that power up by choice.

Louis and Gabriel got locked into another staring contest. Louis tried to read what Gabriel was thinking behind his grey-blue eyes, but all he could see was patience and complete lack of fear. Which had to mean only one thing.

Gabriel knew what Louis knew—what Louis had found out while doing his research last night.

Gabriel knew that he’d already won.

When Louis had sat down at his computer to prepare for this meeting, it had been with the intention of finding out whether Gabriel was really as good as his public image let on. Was he really the honest citizen and philanthropist that Louis had known all his life (in both versions of his memories), or were there any hints that he might have been doing shady things? Was there any indication at all that he hadn’t kept to the agreement that he’d made with Black Tom? Could Louis continue to hold to their deal in good conscience, or did he need to finally tell the authorities about his grandfather’s terrorist past?

What he’d discovered was that it didn’t matter. The choice was no longer in Louis’s hands.

So there was no point avoiding the subject. With a sigh, Louis said, “You knew about the statute of limitations, didn’t you? That was why you asked me my age.”

Gabriel’s mouth curled into the tiniest smirk. “You don’t think I would engage in illegal activity without knowing the potential consequences if I was caught?”

“Wait, what?” said Keva. “What are you talking about?”

Louis probably should have told her about it as soon as he’d found out, but it had never been the right moment. “The statute of limitations for any crimes Grandfather could have been charged with is twenty years. When we talked to him in the past, he knew who we were and how old we were in that time. As soon as I told him that we were twenty-one, he knew he’d be in the clear by the time we got back.”

“What?!” Keva cried. She pointed her fork at Gabriel. “You sneak!”

Gabriel wasn’t at all bothered by her accusation. If anything, he looked a little smug.

“Please, Keva, calm down,” Emilie implored. “Even if he could be arrested for what he did back then, what good would it do? He’s a changed man.”

Keva lowered her fork but gritted her teeth. “Is he?”

Gabriel spread his hands. “I was a different man without Emilie. That was a dark time in my life, and I have no desire to return to it.”

“It was a dark time in a lot of people’s lives, because of you,” said Keva.

“Yes,” Gabriel said with neither pleasure nor remorse.

“Even if I can’t turn you in,” Louis said, “I could still tell Dad and Mom about you.”

“But you won’t.” The certainty in Gabriel’s tone was irritating.

“I made that deal with you because I didn’t want to change my past,” Louis said. “Now that we’re back in the present, that’s not a concern. Dad’s old enough that it wouldn’t traumatize him now. Even Sebastien could deal with it.”

That threat didn’t faze Gabriel. “If your only concern was the fact that Adrien wasn’t yet an adult at the time, you could have instructed his kwami to tell him about me when he was older. You didn’t.”

The shock of hearing Gabriel talk about Adrien’s kwami so casually set Louis’s pulse into overdrive, and he was left gaping at his grandfather.

“Of course I know Adrien and Marinette still have their Miraculouses,” Gabriel said with a dismissive wave, “as do Nino and Alya. I know what the jewels look like in their disguised forms, and they don’t try to hide them.”

It made sense. As that information sunk in, Louis calmed down. If Gabriel had known all this time that the Miraculouses were so close and had made no attempt to get any of them, then maybe he really could be trusted. Maybe he really was—more or less—the man that Louis had thought he was before his trip to the past.

Louis really hoped so.

The weight of responsibility and decision suddenly felt far too heavy, and Louis just wanted it gone. “You’re right,” he said. “I won’t tell Dad and Mom. But I will tell others. Other Miraculous holders, who won’t be traumatized by knowing your identity.” _Luka and Alix_ , Louis decided on the spot. The two with power over time, who for that reason already knew how to keep secrets even more so than the rest. _Maybe Nathaniel, too._ Some people who weren’t part of Gabriel’s family really needed to know. If there was ever a genuine need for the information to be made public, Louis doubted he’d have the objectivity to make the right decision.

Gabriel’s expression was controlled enough that Louis couldn’t tell if the existence of other current Miraculous holders was news to him or not. He simply nodded. “That’s fair.”

With a great effort by Emilie, the dinner got back on track, and they spent another hour talking about more pleasant topics. Keva still didn’t look happy about it all being swept under the rug so neatly, but Louis knew there was nothing they could do—and maybe nothing they should do. Not unless he wanted to hurt his dad by telling him about Gabriel’s past when there was nothing any of them could do to make him face legal justice for his crimes, even if they decided they wanted to. Adrien’s relationship with Gabriel was good. Louis really didn’t want to take that away from him for no reason.

As they said their goodbyes in the foyer, Gabriel moved to hug Louis, and Louis let him. It was awkward on Louis’s part, but Gabriel held him with an unexpected strength that caught Louis off-guard. With his mouth close to Louis’s ear, Gabriel said in a voice just a little too rough, “I will never regret having been Hawk Moth, grandson, because if I had never been Hawk Moth, I wouldn’t have you. Or Sebastien.” He pulled away, looked into Louis’s surprised face, and added, “You’ll understand one day, when you have a child of your own.”

#

At only thirty-six, Louis’s parents were way too young to be empty-nesters, especially since they still had two kids at home. But their house was way too big for four people and had once been the residence of as many as sixteen (briefly). Now, with three guest bedrooms ready and eager for use, Adrien and Marinette would take any chance to have friends and family over whenever they could. Louis didn’t know what they would do with themselves after Hugo moved out and it was just the two of them and their kwamis in the house.

All of which was to say that parties at Adrien and Marinette’s were not unusual, so no one really questioned it when invitations were sent out for a very important but secret party. Once they were all gathered in the living room with beverages and the kwamis were off doing their own thing, though, people did start to ask.

Kim threw his arms over the back of the couch, taking up way more than his share of space. “Hey, Marinette, why did you tell me to come now but Ondine and the kids can’t come until later?”

It was true that the gathering was meant to be much larger in an hour or two. That was when they would announce the engagement and reveal that this particular shindig was a long-expected engagement party.

But _this_ party, this little pre-party they were having, was for a different purpose. And the guest list was a lot more exclusive.

“Why do you think, Kim?” Marinette asked. She was sitting next to Adrien on the couch, the two of them cuddled up together like a couple of newlyweds.

“I don’t know,” said Kim. “That’s why I asked.”

Keva and Louis were sitting on the floor in front of the TV. While Kim, Alix, and Max debated the answer to Kim’s question, Keva’s and Louis’s parents sat expectantly, Nathaniel watched the two of them with an analytical gaze, and Luka observed them with casual serenity and a hint of curiosity.

It was Nathaniel who broke through the noise of the argument. “Guys, I think these two might have something to say.”

Kim, Alix, and Max quieted down and looked at Louis and Keva.

Louis mumbled gibberish, unable to figure out how to do this.

Keva told the group, “We just wanted to say that you guys were the best team a couple of replacements could ask for.”

Those of them who had already known—including Nathaniel—broke out into broad grins, while Alix and Max were shocked and Kim remained confused.

Luka smiled, his eyes bright. “It _was_ you.”

“You knew, too?” Louis asked.

Luka winked. “I _Sass_ pected.”

Adrien choked on his drink. “Was that a pun?”

Alya groaned. “Sort of. His are even worse than yours.”

Louis was already laughing. It _had_ been a very bad pun, but the fact that Luka had tried to pun at all was an occasion.

Kim shot forward in his seat. “Wait! What’s going on? What am I missing?”

Alix leapt off the couch and pointed at Keva and Louis accusingly. “You mean _you_ were Ladybird and Black Tom?” She whirled on Nathaniel. “And you never told me?”

“I would have if you’d asked, but you never asked, _Bunnyx_.” Nathaniel’s reminder softened Alix’s indignation. He took her hand and tugged her back down onto the couch. When he kept her hand, she didn’t try to get it back, though she still pretended to be annoyed.

Max’s eyes were wide behind his glasses. “Fascinating,” he breathed. “I have so many questions.”

Kim was shaking his head. “Wait. _They_ were Ladybird and Black Tom? How? Someone explain what’s going on!”

So they all talked for a while, and there were hugs and a very strange reunion, and Louis and Keva even borrowed the Miraculouses again to transform and remove any suspicions that this was some kind of prank.

When it was getting close to the time when Hugo and Emma would get back from the supply run they’d been sent on and the other guests would show up, Louis and Keva wandered upstairs to get a few minutes to themselves.

He took her hand in his and headed up to the third floor.

“I think that’s the last of the unfinished business,” she said, content to go where he led.

“Not quite. I want to see something.”

“What?”

“This.” He opened the door, and they stepped into the room that they’d shared—along with others—for the first eight years of their lives, until Keva’s family had moved out. The room had been Louis’s alone from the ages of fourteen to nineteen. It was Hugo’s now, cluttered with clothes and books, a collection of _Miraculous_ graphic novels piled on the floor.

Through all the moving and shuffling, and with all the kids who’d lived here, no matter how crowded it had gotten, they’d always made sure to keep the far wall clear enough to see the mural.

Louis hadn’t seen it since he’d moved out two years ago, but all the details were permanently embedded in his brain.

Except now they were wrong. The mural was different. And although his older memories of it were being glazed over with new ones, seeing it right now, with his own eyes, it was like he’d never seen it before in his life. But at the same time, it triggered a strong wave of nostalgia.

“It’s different,” Keva breathed, leaning against him as they examined the mural.

There were so many more superheroes than there had been in the last timeline, all posed in dramatic action shots, portraits captured by a loving and talented hand. Ladybug, Cat Noir, Carapace, Rena Rouge . . . but also Bunnyx, Queen Bee, Cockerel, and heroes that Louis would have sworn he’d never seen before until the moment he laid eyes on the image and familiarity clicked into place. A dog heroine, a butterfly hero, a mouse heroine, an ox hero . . .

“There are so many,” Keva said.

Louis nodded.

Behind them, a voice said, “A full set. Just like we planned.”

They turned to see Nathaniel standing in the doorway, admiring the work of his youth, fingers twitching as his eyes drifted over the mural like he kept finding things he wanted to fix. He moved closer to stand with them, taller than his younger self but still not as tall as Louis.

“Then it worked?” Louis asked. “Going back. Changing the timeline. It was worth it?”

Nathaniel put a hand on Louis’s shoulder. “Yeah. It worked.”

Keva squeezed Louis’s hand, mirroring the relief he felt. He wanted to ask for details, but he knew Nathaniel wouldn’t give them to him. Rabbit’s honor, even if Nathaniel was the rooster now.

Louis needed to tell him and Alix and Luka about Hawk Moth, but not tonight. This was his engagement party night. It was supposed to be a celebration of the fact that Louis and Keva had finally found each other. They could save unpleasantness for another day.

So he went back to examining the mural. With so many heroes on the wall, there were a lot of details to admire. “When’s the last time any of you transformed?” he asked. His memories hadn’t quite caught up to giving him that information.

“We take turns letting ourselves be spotted once a year or so, just to reassure people that we’re still around.” Nathaniel looked over to the pile of comics on the ground. “And I do what I can to keep us all in the public awareness. And make sure kids who weren’t around when Hawk Moth was active know what we can do and why we’re here.”

Right. The comics. Nathaniel’s comics. Memories flooded into Louis’s mind: how he’d read those pages over and over again, how he’d bragged to kids at school that he knew the creator when the comics started getting more popular. Ladybug, Cat Noir, and all the others lived in those pages, and they had adventures far beyond what the real team had ever had—and hopefully ever would have.

“How long did it take you to finish this?” Keva asked, meaning the mural.

“Oh, I haven’t finished it,” said Nathaniel.

Louis raised an eyebrow at him. “It’s been finished for as long as I can remember.”

Nathaniel’s gaze was playful. “It wasn’t finished, only on hold.”

“What’s left?” Louis asked.

“Remember how you two said you owed me for helping save you from Timejumper?” Nathaniel asked.

Louis narrowed his eyes at the topic change. “Yeah . . . ”

“Good. It’s time to pay up.”

“Pay up how?” Keva sounded as dubious as Louis felt.

Nathaniel grinned and pointed to a section of wall adjacent to the mural which Louis had never really paid attention to. Louis noticed now that it had the same city background on it as the superhero mural—an extension of the image with what suddenly looked like an obvious gap to be filled.

“I want you to pose for me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we just have the present-time wrap-up. It's several scenes, so I'm not sure if it'll be one long chapter or multiple shorter ones.


	122. Chapter 122

Before returning to his own time, White Rabbit made one last side trip. It would be his last chance to travel through time before giving the Rabbit Miraculous back, and even though part of him was terrified of what he might find—and even more so of the possibility of somehow getting stuck there—a larger part was too curious to find out if he’d done enough to avert the future he’d seen.

As Nathaniel walked down the sidewalk toward his destination, he grew hopeful. There were no flying cars and no aliens walking among the humans. The clothes people wore were a different trend than the colorful styles he’d seen before, everyone was speaking French, and the technology was less advanced than it had been.

When he stepped into _Bruel Books_ , he saw changes there, as well. While half the space was still taken up with electronic displays and kiosks, there were many more shelves of paper books than there had been last time, and the sign behind the counter had the shop name in large, clear French words, with a couple smaller lines in foreign human languages indicating that the proprietor spoke Spanish and English as well.

“Welcome!” said a cheerful voice.

Nathaniel smiled at the stocky man and approached the register. “Hello, sir.”

“Can I help you find something, son?”

Nathaniel’s eyes caught on the nose ring the man was wearing. He hadn’t been wearing it last time, and it was the only piece of jewelry the clerk wore other than a wedding ring. A delightful suspicion crept through Nathaniel’s brain, but he asked, “Do you have any books on history?”

“Sure, all kinds. What are you looking for?”

A soft sigh of relief escaped Nathaniel’s lips. It was tempting to ask for details about the war and the aliens, but he had to exercise restraint. “Never mind. Can you tell me one thing?” He pulled the Rabbit Miraculous from his pocket and held it up. It was in its camouflaged form, appearing only as a shiny, silver pocket watch. “Do you recognize this?”

The clerk’s eyes widened. “You’re not Vincent. How do you have that?”

A thrill of victory rushed through Nathaniel’s body, but he stopped himself from reacting too much. “Thanks, Mr. Bruel. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. Fluff, clockwise.”

The man jerked in surprise as Nathaniel transformed, then called out for him to wait and answer his questions. White Rabbit didn’t wait. He just opened a Burrow and, for the second time, left Ivan’s stunned grandson with nothing but questions.

Questions which he probably contacted his teammate for answers to as soon as White Rabbit had gone.

#

By the time Nathaniel returned to Master Fu’s hideout in the sewer, Marinette felt really good about who they’d be giving Miraculouses to. She and Adrien, with Fu’s input, had thought of a person for every single one. They’d disagreed over one or two of them, but in the end they’d come to a consensus.

When Nathaniel entered the room, Marinette asked, “How did it go?” and held her breath.

With a satisfied smile, Nathaniel gave her a thumbs-up. “Everything’s good.”

Air whooshed out of her, and she fell into Adrien’s arms in relief.

“I guess it’s over now,” Adrien murmured.

The rustle of cloth drew her attention back to Nathaniel. “I think you guys want these.”

Marinette and Adrien both snatched their Miraculouses out of Nathaniel’s hands so quickly, they almost dropped them. As soon as Marinette had her earrings in, Tikki popped into the air.

“Tikki!” Marinette squealed. Her kwami friend returned the squeal, and Marinette hugged her as tightly as she could hug someone so small as joy bubbled up inside her. “I’m so happy to have you back!”

“And I’m happy to be back,” Tikki agreed.

Adrien laughed as Plagg ruffled his hair with his whole body. “It’s good to have you back, Plagg.”

“Yeah . . . you too, kid,” Plagg said with pretend reluctance.

It felt so good—so right—to have Tikki back, and Marinette was sure that Adrien felt the same about Plagg. The other kwamis were great, and she hoped they’d be happy with their new owners, but Tikki belonged with Marinette, and Plagg belonged with Adrien, and there were just no substitutes. Not even when there were substitutes.

Nathaniel took a carrot out of his pocket and fed Fluff. “Thanks for being my partner, Fluff.”

The little rabbit kwami ate the carrot, then planted a tiny, adorable kiss on Nathaniel’s cheek.

He took the pocket watch out and set it in the middle of the table with the others. Fluff disappeared into it, once again dormant. “What now?” Nathaniel asked.

Marinette considered giving him his new Miraculous now, but since they didn’t need to transform in order to go back home, she decided to wait. “Now we go back to the others. But first . . . ” She turned to Master Fu. “Is this goodbye, Master?”

Fu reached up to lay a hand on her arm, his expression kind and hopeful. “Yes, Marinette. You have my phone number. You can contact me if there is an emergency. And I will arrange a way for you and your team to get in touch with the Order of Guardians, should you need to.”

Adrien slid up beside Marinette and put his arm around her waist. “Are you going to meet up with Marianne, Master Fu?”

Fu smiled with loving anticipation. “Yes. She has waited for me long enough. We may not remain in Paris, but I will let her make that decision. Now that Hawk Moth is gone and the Miraculouses will soon be out of my possession, the danger to us should be over.”

“I’m really happy for you, Master,” said Adrien. “I can’t imagine having to wait as long as you have for the woman I love.”

Marinette had a hard time imagining it, too. “Please make the most of the time you have left with her. Don’t worry about us. We won’t fail you.”

Fu’s gaze drifted to Nathaniel, who nodded. “It’s true. We won’t.”

Fu put on his jacket and picked up the bag he’d packed. “That’s good enough for me. Shall we go?” He’d already said goodbye to Wayzz, Longg, and the other kwamis.

Marinette gathered the Miraculouses, each in its own individual box, into a bag that Fu had given her for the purpose. The Miracle Box itself would stay with him, and he would find a way to return it to the Order.

When the four of them reached the street level, Marinette and Adrien hugged Fu goodbye and once again wished him well, hoping this wouldn’t actually be the last time they saw him, then headed toward home.

The bag slung across Marinette’s shoulders—the one holding nearly a full set of Miraculouses—suddenly felt a lot heavier.

#

There was a strange tightness in Adrien’s chest, but it wasn’t a bad tension. It was more like the coiled spring of anticipation. Everything was changing so quickly now. Hawk Moth was gone. That alone would take a while to sink in. But instead of meaning the end of Adrien’s time with Plagg—the end of his time as a superhero—it was the beginning of something new.

Adrien was sad that he might not see Master Fu again, but he was really happy that the old man, who’d given his life to the Miraculouses, would finally get to be with the woman he loved. Adrien didn’t know how Fu could have given up so much time with her. If given the choice between safeguarding the Miraculouses and being with Marinette, Adrien knew he’d choose Marinette every time. He also had a feeling that, given the same choice, she would choose duty over him. Not because she didn’t love him but because she was more selfless than him. So he was determined to make sure she never had to face that choice. He was her partner _and_ her future husband, and he would make sure to play both roles as well as he possibly could so she never felt like she would be a better person or a better Ladybug without him.

He was really glad that she had decided not to try to be the new Guardian. It seemed like such a lonely task, and it would have kept her out of his reach. Now, with their new plan, they were a team. Not just the two of them, but all their friends as well. They would all share a bond deeper than friendship, the sharing of an important calling. He and Marinette weren’t alone against the world anymore. Even though a very small part of him didn’t want to share her with anyone else, the larger part of him was still desperate for as many positive connections with others as he could get.

He opened the door to their house and found their friends waiting for them in the living room.

“You’re back!” Kim leapt up to greet them, literally bouncing with excitement.

As they came in, Marinette glanced around. “Where are Nathalie and Geneviève?”

“We convinced them to go have a mother-daughter date,” Alya said from the couch, and Adrien realized that the baby she was holding wasn’t Keva but Sebastien. “We should have the house to ourselves for a few hours.”

The other babies were being held or were resting in one of the bassinets tucked amongst the furniture in the room.

Nino jumped off the couch. “So? How’d it go?”

“Did they get back okay?” Alya asked.

Nathaniel nodded. “Yeah, they got back fine. I only waited around long enough to make sure nothing too significant had changed. They assured me that the world was almost exactly the same as the one they’d left.”

Alya let out a relieved breath.

“And the Miraculouses?” asked Alix.

Marinette grinned and held up the bag. “I brought them back.”

A cheer went up, making Sebastien and the twins start crying. As people hurried to quiet them back down, Marinette, Adrien, and Nathaniel found spots in the circle of the group.

“Before I give them back,” Marinette said, “I want to explain the plan that the Guardian agreed to, how things will be going forward. Now that Hawk Moth is gone, there’s no reason for any of us to still be active. For the most part, Adrien and I only went out as superheroes when there was a villain to fight. Usually, superheroes are chosen when there’s a specific threat, then the Miraculouses are put away once the threat has passed. But because of the threat that Nathaniel saw in the future, the Guardian agreed to let us form a reserve team. We’re going to have a lot of Miraculous holders out there at once, but we can’t all go running around as superheroes all the time for no reason. And we can’t start taking on jobs that aren’t ours. We deal with supervillain-level threats. We’re not Spider-man; we don’t go around looking for muggers and bank robbers. Sure, we help out with stuff like that if we happen to be nearby and see it, but that’s not our job. The police and the military can do their own jobs. If they specifically ask us for help, or if something is obviously beyond their capability, then we can step in. Do you guys get what I’m saying?”

Max nodded. “You’re saying that even though we have access to superpowers, we shouldn’t use them on a daily basis. Only if they’re needed for a specific purpose.”

“Exactly.”

“Aw, man!” said Kim.

“I know,” Marinette agreed. “We’ll all have to exercise restraint. We can’t just go swinging around the city all day, every day. But we will want to be seen occasionally, just to make sure that people know we’re around to help out if we’re needed. And so any potential supervillains know we’re around to stop them, if they should decide to try anything.”

“This isn’t going to be easy,” said Adrien. “When I got my Miraculous, it felt like I was free for the first time in my life. But I don’t need a Miraculous to be free anymore. I have my own home, my own family, and my own life. I’m not stuck doing whatever my father says. All of us have grown up a lot in the past year, and even though we’ve taken on a lot of responsibility, with that responsibility has come freedom. So even though I won’t be able to be Cat Noir whenever I want to, I’m looking on the bright side. For me, keeping my Miraculous isn’t about the superpowers. It’s about having the ability to help if I need it. And, even more, it’s about keeping my friend with me.” He looked fondly to Plagg, who was attempting to eat the TV remote. “Plagg was my friend at a time when no one else could get close enough to be my friend. He means a lot to me, and I’m glad I’ll get to have him around for a lot longer.”

“Tikki means a lot to me, too,” said Marinette, giving Tikki a quick cuddle against her cheek. “I think everyone else will like having a kwami around, too. Once you get used to having a friend who’s with you all the time like that, it feels terrible when they’re not around. I wish _everyone_ could have a kwami friend.”

Plagg stopped messing with the remote and preened a little as he floated in the air. “We _are_ pretty great.”

Marinette cut a look to Adrien. “Is it possible all the dumb showing off you do as Cat Noir comes from him?”

Adrien had never thought about it. He shrugged.

Tikki giggled. “All boys are dumb show-offs under the right circumstances, Marinette.”

Alya was grinning at them, one hand absently stroking Sebastien’s back as she held him. “We believe you guys. So, can I have Trixx back yet?”

“Everyone’s on board with this reserve team plan?” Marinette asked.

Everyone nodded.

Like Santa at Christmas, Marinette opened her bag and handed Alya, Nino, Max, and Kim each a box containing a Miraculous. There were enthusiastic reunions with their kwamis, especially Alya and Nino, who hadn’t seen Trixx and Wayzz since Hawk Moth had stolen them.

Next, Marinette took out a box and gave it to Alix.

Alix opened it to find the Rabbit Miraculous. “Yes! I get my watch back! Thanks!” She grabbed it, and Fluff came out and greeted her.

Marinette took out another box and turned to Nathaniel. “You really did do a good job as White Rabbit, but maybe you’ll be more comfortable with this one.”

Nathaniel’s face relaxed a tiny fraction, as if he’d been worried he wouldn’t get a Miraculous again. He took the box and opened it, a big smile blooming on his face when Orikko popped out.

“Hello, Nathaniel,” said Orikko. “Are you my new master?”

“Looks that way.” Nathaniel put on the thumb ring Miraculous and patted the rooster kwami’s head. “I think we’re gonna be good friends, Orikko.”

“I am happy to serve you, Nathaniel.”

Adrien beamed at all of his friends getting along so well with their kwamis. He was so happy for them all.

When things settled down a little, Marinette said, “Now, about the rest of them.”

That got their attention. Those who had jumped out of their seats sat back down.

“How many more are there?” Max asked.

“There are nineteen in this set,” Marinette answered.

“Whoa,” said Kim and Nino.

Marinette pulled the first extra box out and offered it to Kim.

His eyes lit up with amazement. “I get _two_?”

Marinette laughed. “No, Kim. This one’s for Ondine.”

Kim looked pleasantly surprised. Touched, even. “You want to give my wife a Miraculous?”

It was still extremely weird to hear Kim talk about his _wife_.

“When we needed somewhere for our replacements to stay, she agreed to give up your new home for a while without a second thought,” Marinette explained. “Only a truly kind and generous person would do something like that. And you love her, which is even more proof that she’s a good person, and I believe she’ll make a good hero.”

Kim took the box gently in both hands. “This is so awesome, Marinette. Now I won’t have to hide it from her, either.”

That had actually been a significant factor in their decision-making process when they’d been figuring out who to give Miraculouses to. Adrien and Marinette knew from experience how hard it could be keeping this secret from the people they lived with—and how many lies it could require. They didn’t want to force any of their friends into that situation if they could help it.

“Can I look at it?” Kim asked.

“Not here,” Marinette said. “Let Ondine open it. The peacock kwami has been through some tough and traumatic things recently, and I don’t want to confuse or overwhelm her by surprising her with a whole group of strangers.”

Kim didn’t pick up on the significance of what Marinette had said, but others did.

“Peacock?” asked Nino. “As in . . . ”

Marinette nodded. “That Miraculous belonged to Mayura. Black Tom was able to return it with the Butterfly Miraculous. It had been damaged, but the Guardian repaired it. He assured me it’s good as new now.”

Kim frowned at her. “It’s not evil, is it?”

“No,” Adrien said firmly. “None of the Miraculouses or kwamis are evil. They’re all meant to be used for good. Hawk Moth and Mayura used them for evil. Their kwamis were their victims as much as any of us.”

With a nod, Kim’s expression morphed into resolve. “That won’t be a problem anymore. Ondine will take good care of her.”

“I’m sure she will.” Looking into the bag, Marinette said, “Adrien and I are going to hand out a few of them, but I could use volunteers for more of the others.”

Instant, eager offers burst out of nearly everyone. Receiving a Miraculous was amazing, so the idea of being the person to give one to someone else was thrilling, too.

Marinette laughed. “Let’s go one at a time.” She held up a box. “Juleka.”

She was already looking at Luka when she said it, and now everyone else looked over at him, too. With a big smile and an excited gleam in his eyes, Luka took the box. “Thanks, Marinette.”

“Some of the people we chose needed some discussion,” Adrien said, “but Juleka was an obvious choice.”

“Yeah, she is,” Luka agreed.

Marinette pulled out the next box, and no one looked very surprised when she said, “Rose.”

Alix and Max both made a move like they wanted to volunteer, but Nathaniel—to everyone’s surprise—butted in first. “Can I do that one?”

Marinette looked at him curiously. Adrien was just as lost as she was. Nathaniel and Rose were friends, but no better friends than any of the rest of them.

Nathaniel looked a little shy about it, but he didn’t back down. “I don’t know if I should say, but . . . in one of the future times that I saw, I met her. She made me promise to make sure the heroes wouldn’t disappear.”

Adrien’s mind was suddenly full of questions, and it made him almost physically itch that he couldn’t ask any of them.

Marinette took it better. She just smiled and handed Nathaniel the box.

“Ivan and Mylène,” she said, holding up the next two.

“Me!” Alix and Max shouted simultaneously, each grabbing for one, clearly not wanting to let another opportunity to be Miraculous Santa pass by them.

When Marinette pulled out the next box and said, “Marc,” several people shot looks at Nathaniel. He was already giving one to Rose, but it wouldn’t make sense for anyone else to give Marc his, since Nathaniel was his best friend. As he took the box, he had the grace to look a little embarrassed at ‘hogging’ two of them, but he was also smiling.

“Marc?” said Kim. “Kind of a weird choice.”

Marinette shook her head. “Marc might be quiet and shy, but I’m sure he’s what we need for this one.”

Alya didn’t miss the phrasing. “Which Miraculous are you giving him?”

“Let’s not reveal anyone else’s Miraculouses for now,” said Adrien. “We’ll have a meeting—or a party—after everyone’s been recruited, and everyone can find out all the Miraculous assignments then.”

The sharp curiosity in Alya’s eyes didn’t go away, but she let it drop.

When a few seconds passed and Marinette didn’t bring out any more boxes, Nino said, “What? That’s it? Don’t Alya and I get to give any out?”

Marinette shrugged sheepishly. “Sorry. Adrien and I want to do the others ourselves.”

Alya’s eyes narrowed. “Please tell me you’re not going to let Chloe be Queen Bee again.”

Even though Adrien understood where Alya was coming from, he felt a little offended on his friend’s behalf. “I know Chloe’s not perfect, but I really think she has it in her to be a great hero. And I think being Queen Bee made her want to prove that she _could_ be a hero. I think it made her a better person.”

Alya opened her mouth to argue, but Marinette cut her off.

“I do plan to give it to her, Alya, but we’re going to talk to her first and see if we really think she could fit in with the team and play by the rules.”

“And if she can’t?” Alya asked.

Marinette sighed. “Then we’ll think of someone else. But I think Adrien’s right about her. As much as I dislike her, I have to set my personal feelings aside and look at it objectively. And, objectively, she’s shown definite promise as a hero.”

Judging by their faces, Alya wasn’t the only one who was dubious about the idea of Chloe being a hero, but they deferred to the team leader for now.

“Fine,” said Alya, “I guess Nino and I will stay here and watch the babies while the rest of you go do the fun part.” She was clearly disappointed, but not as disappointed as she pretended.

Alix jumped up eagerly. “Thanks, guys! Come on, Max. Ivan and Mylène are probably together. Let’s go find them.”

Max let Alix drag him out the door, then Kim ran out, eager to talk to Ondine.

Nathaniel looked down at the two Miraculous boxes in his hands.

“Trying to figure out which to do first?” Adrien asked.

Nathaniel nodded.

Luka stood. “You might as well come with me. We may be able to take care of all three of these at once.”

“What do you mean?” Marinette asked.

“Well, you know Juleka and Rose are usually together,” Luka said, “and Juleka’s been spending a lot of time with Marc.”

“She has?” Nathaniel asked.

“You didn’t notice?”

Nathaniel averted his eyes. “I haven’t spent much time with Marc lately. Not since I became White Rabbit.”

Luka nodded in understanding, his expression completely free of censure. “Your life’s been busy. His has, too. I’m sure he understands.”

“Do you know how he’s doing?” Adrien asked. It seemed like a long time since he’d even talked to Marc. “Weren’t his parents threatening to kick him out?” Remembering how much he’d wished there’d been room for Marc and Coccinelle to move into the house with them, Adrien felt horrible for forgetting about Marc’s dilemma.

“Marc’s doing all right,” Luka said. “He and Coccinelle found a place to live.”

“Where?” Marinette asked.

Luka smiled. “The Liberty.”

Adrien wasn’t sure he’d heard correctly. “What?”

“A couple friends of mine couldn’t handle living in their house after their siblings had babies,” Luka said with a shrug, “so I moved into an apartment with them and gave Marc my spot at home.”

In the pause that followed, Nathaniel’s sharp intake of breath and the following, “Aaaaaahhh,” had them all looking at him.

“What?” Adrien asked, because that _Ahh_ had sounded like a revelation.

“Nothing.” Nathaniel immediately clammed up.

Hopefully this weird, cryptic _I can’t talk about_ _it_ _because future_ stuff would run out soon, because it was really annoying. Although at least Nathaniel wasn’t the type of person to deliberately milk it for years to come.

“Well,” Adrien said, “I’m really glad to hear Marc and Coccinelle have a place.”

Marinette laid a hand on Luka’s arm. “You gave up your home for them. That’s so kind, Luka.”

“I was going to move out at some point, anyway,” he said humbly. “And Juleka can’t get enough of Coccinelle. It made sense.”

Luka and Nathaniel headed out, and Adrien gathered up the Miraculous bag. “Ready, Milady?”

“Almost.” Marinette got her phone out. Over her shoulder, Adrien saw her pull up the photo that the two of them had taken while Nathaniel had been gone: Ladybug and Cat Noir holding the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses like Olympic athletes would hold up gold medals.

A couple seconds later, Alya’s phone dinged.

Marinette told her, “While we’re gone, you can get to work on our victory announcement.”

Alya didn’t look bummed about being left behind anymore. “Yes! Hawk Moth’s defeat: a Ladyblog exclusive!”

“You’ve been our biggest supporter from the beginning,” Marinette told her. “ Of course we’d give you the exclusive. We can talk to the rest of the press later.”

Alya set Sebastien down and hugged Marinette. “You’re amazing, girl! I knew you were my best friend for a reason!”


	123. Chapter 123

As they walked down the block, Luka realized that this was the first time he’d ever been alone with Nathaniel. It was . . . nice. Peaceful. Nathaniel had a much calmer energy about him than some of their other friends.

They walked in comfortable silence for a minute or two before Luka said, “When you took the replacements back to the future, there was a point where you were holding both the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses, wasn’t there?”

“Yeah,” said Nathaniel, clearly confused about where Luka was going with this.

“It didn’t even occur to you, did it? That you had what Hawk Moth had been after all this time. That you could have used the two Miraculouses to wish for anything you wanted.”

Nathaniel’s mouth opened and closed like a fish. “N-no!”

Luka nodded. “Marinette was right. You were a good choice. I’m sure Alix is a good choice, too, though.”

“She is.”

After a few more seconds of silence, Luka said, “Maybe the reason it didn’t occur to you was because you knew you would already get what you most wanted?”

Nathaniel was pointedly silent before weakly saying, “Maybe.”

“I heard you had a crush on Marinette once.”

Nathaniel shot him a look from behind his bangs, and Luka saw a faint blush on his cheeks before he looked away, hiding behind his hair. “I actually had a crush on her twice. As Marinette, then as Ladybug.”

“She’s pretty amazing.” Luka tried to see Nathaniel’s reaction, but he was standing on the wrong side of the redhead. That wasn’t a big deal; Luka was used to talking to someone’s hair, since Juleka did the same thing. “I’m happy for you and Alix, though. Or should I say, I _will be_ happy for you?”

“I can’t say anything about that,” Nathaniel muttered, still embarrassed. “You know that.”

“I know.”

They crossed a street in silence, keeping an eye out for traffic. When they got to the other side, Nathaniel said tentatively, “For a while, everyone said that Adrien thought you and Marinette were a couple. Was that ever true?”

“That he thought that? Yes. That we were? No.” Luka considered his next words, then decided there was no harm in telling him. “I used Second Chance once to try to tell Adrien the truth, but he didn’t take it well. They needed to figure it out on their own. All I could do was watch.”

Maybe Nathaniel heard the slight strain in Luka’s voice. The other boy looked up at him and said, “Marinette’s amazing, but there are other amazing girls in the world. You just have to open your eyes to them.”

“I believe you,” Luka said. Juleka was an amazing girl. So was Rose, though not in a way that struck any romantic chords for him. Marinette was the first—and so far only—girl that had ever done so.

“You really love her, don’t you?” Nathaniel asked.

“Not as much as Adrien does.” Adrien—as Cat Noir—had been totally willing to marry Ladybug and be a father to her baby even though (he believed) he wasn’t responsible for her and already had his own baby to worry about. Luka hadn’t loved Marinette enough to take on that responsibility, even though he didn’t have nearly as many preexisting responsibilities as Adrien. Even though Luka’s heart felt like it loved Marinette, this whole ordeal had taught him that love was more than a feeling. Love needed action, too, and a willingness to commit even when doing so wasn’t necessarily easy. Luka hoped that one day he would be mature enough to love a girl like Adrien loved Marinette.

“Is it hard to see them together?”

“In a way. But when I see how happy they are, all I can feel is happy for them. I’m glad they’re my friends. And teammates.”

Nathaniel let out a puff of laughter. “It still doesn’t feel real. I can’t believe I really have a Miraculous _and_ that I get to keep it indefinitely.”

“It’s gonna be fun,” Luka agreed. “Speaking of which, don’t you think we should do this job as Viperion and . . . what’s your name now?”

“Cockerel,” Nathaniel said. “And yeah. Let’s do it.”

They sauntered into the next handy alley, transformed, and climbed up to the roof. The strength flowing through Viperion and the wind rushing by as they ran across rooftops was exhilarating. Too quickly, they landed on the deck of the Liberty.

There didn’t appear to be anyone on deck, so Viperion led Cockerel downstairs, into the main living area.

Juleka and Rose were sitting together on the couch, cooing over Coccinelle, who was sleeping in Rose’s arms. When the girls saw the two heroes enter, they started in surprise, and Juleka got to her feet.

“No way! Superheroes?” Rose squeaked.

“Is something wrong?” Juleka asked.

Rose’s outburst had made Coccinelle wake and start fussing, so Rose distractedly tried to soothe her while shooting wide-eyed looks at the heroes.

Viperion held up a hand. “Nothing’s wrong. We were hoping to talk to you two for a minute.”

Juleka came closer to him, her one visible eye sliding from Viperion to Cockerel. “Talk about what?”

Viperion smiled at her. “Hold out your hand.” When she did so, he moved close and wrapped his hand around hers from below while placing the Miraculous box into it, keeping his other hand over the top to cover it. Then he leaned in and kissed her cheek.

She didn’t pull away like she would have if she’d thought he was a stranger, which had to mean that he was right in believing that she’d figured him out already.

“Welcome to the team, sis,” he whispered before stepping back.

Juleka looked at what she held, excitement radiating from her in a way it rarely did, and opened the box. A ball of light floated out of the box and became a purple tiger kwami. “So cool,” Juleka murmured.

“Whaaa?” Rose squealed in surprise. Coccinelle started crying, but Rose was so distracted that she just put the baby in a bassinet so she could give Juleka her full attention. “What is that?!”

The tiger kwami did a little twirl in the air. “I am a kwami.”

Juleka slid the Miraculous onto her hand. “I really get my own Miraculous?”

“Yep,” said Viperion. “Ladybug and Cat Noir chose you personally.”

“You’re a superhero now?” Rose cried. “That’s so awesome!” She threw her arms around Juleka, and the two girls bounced up and down with excitement. When they stopped, Rose regarded Cockerel. “Who are you? Are you a new hero, too?”

“Yes and no,” he said. “I used to be White Rabbit until a few minutes ago. Now I’m Cockerel.”

Rose’s expression suddenly shifted to concern. “Should I be seeing this? If Juleka’s getting picked to be a hero, shouldn’t her identity be a secret?”

“Normally, that’s true,” Viperion acknowledged. “But this is a special case. Sass, scales rest.” In a flash of light, his transformation fell.

Rose squealed in surprise.

Juleka hugged Luka.

“How long have you known about me?” he asked her.

She grinned. “A few months.”

“Luka!” Rose shrieked. “You’re a superhero!”

The fact that she hadn’t phrased it as a question made him smile. “I know.”

“Did you put in a good word for me with Ladybug or something?” Juleka asked him.

“I didn’t need to. She already knew about you.”

“How?”

“The same way she knew about the rest of us.” Without explaining that statement, Luka turned his attention to Cockerel and waited.

#

Onceall eyes were on him, Cockerel said, “Sunset,” and he turned back into Nathaniel.

Rose let out a squeal that was somehow higher-pitched than the last one.

Juleka watched in amusement as her kwami started chasing Sass and Orikko around the room. “This is so awesome.”

Pointing an accusing finger at him, Rose cried, “Nathaniel’s a superhero, too!”

“Is that okay?”

“It’s amazing! You guys are so cool!” Rose ran up and threw herself on Nathaniel, hugging him and bouncing while she squealed. It was extremely startling, but Nathaniel managed not to throw her off of him in a panic. Just when he was thinking he might have to pry her arms off his neck to save himself from injury, she broke away suddenly. “Why are you all letting me see you, though?”

Nathaniel smiled. “Why do you think?” He withdrew the box he’d brought for her and held it out.

Her eyes got huge, locking onto the box as her hands flew to her mouth and she screeched, “For me?!”

Nathaniel rubbed his ear. “Yeah.”

“Thank you!” She snatched it and opened it to reveal a cute pearl anklet and a bright orb of pink light. As the light turned into a pig kwami, Rose did an excited flail-dance. “You’re so cute!”

“Thank you, mistress,” said the kwami. “You are very cute, too.”

Rose grabbed her kwami and hugged the little magical being to her cheek.

Luka and Nathaniel stood back while the girls got most of their excitement out of their system.

When they’d settled down a bit, Rose asked, “But why us?”

Luka took a seat on the couch. “Like I said, Ladybug and Cat Noir picked you themselves.”

“But we don’t even know them,” said Juleka. Apparently she hadn’t figured out _all_ of the team, which was reassuring.

“Don’t you?” Luka asked with a wink.

The girls looked at him in confusion.

Since Adrien had said something about them all revealing themselves when they got together, Nathaniel guessed that they might not want the rest of them spilling everything right now. “You’ll see in a little while. We’re all gonna get together as a team soon, and you’ll meet all the other heroes. And Ladybug’ll probably explain how things are now.”

Juleka sat next to her brother and asked Nathaniel, “What do you mean, ‘how things are’?”

There was one big piece of news that was probably fine to share. “Hawk Moth’s been defeated. Ladybug got his and Mayura’s Miraculouses back.”

This news was met by more shock and celebration, though it would likely take all of them a little while to fully process it.

“I’ll let Ladybug explain the details of everything. She’s the team leader. But, um . . . ” Nathaniel moved closer to Rose. “Could I talk to you for a minute?”

Though obviously confused by the request, Rose nodded, and they went into the cabin. The small bedroom cabin was divided into two sides—one with Juleka’s things and the other with Marc’s things, with foldable screens that could separate each area from the other and from the hallway for privacy, though the screens were folded back right now.

Rose sat on Juleka’s bed, and Nathaniel sat beside her.

Part of him wanted to tell her about meeting her in that horrible future, but he decided that would be a bad idea. First, because it probably broke the rules about telling people about their own future, even if it was a future which he was sure wouldn’t happen now. Second, because Rose was so innocent, he didn’t want her even thinking about what he’d seen in that time. And he thought that the older, rougher version of herself would have agreed with him.

But he still felt like he needed some kind of closure about it. Even if she wouldn’t understand.

He took her hand, and she let him hold it, watching him curiously. “We’re heroes now,” he told her. “ _You’re_ a hero now. The world needs us. I know you’ve got what it takes.” He blushed, certain he’d just said something unintentionally insulting. As if she needed to be told she had what it took. “I mean, of course you do, or Ladybug wouldn’t have picked you. I just wanted you to know that I know you can be as heroic as you need to be.”

“Nathaniel, I don’t understand,” she said gently. “I _do_ think I can do this, but it sounds like you’re trying to say something more.”

He was being weird. He knew that. Maybe he could tell her a little, to get his point across better. (Although even he wasn’t entirely sure what his point was. It just felt like he had to say something, and he was fumbling for words until he found the ones that felt right.) “I don’t know if you know this, but the Rabbit Miraculous—the one I was using before—lets the user travel through time. I made a short visit to a point in the future that I can’t tell you anything about, other than . . . I ran into you there, and you saved my life.”

“I did?” she asked, eyes wide.

He smiled at her. “Yeah. I’m sure you know yourself better than I know you, but I guess I . . . just wanted to say that if you ever have a moment where you doubt if you can be a hero, I’ll always be around to remind you that you absolutely can. Okay?”

She hugged him. “Thanks, Nathaniel. I’ll remember that.”

When she let him go, there was a moment where she was about to stand up.

He broke in before she could. “On a different topic, just out of curiosity . . . ” _Super smooth transition, Nath. She’ll never guess this has anything to do with the future._ (Since when did his snarky internal voice sound so much like Alix?) “ . . . have you talked to Prince Ali lately?”

Amazingly, Rose really didn’t seem to put it together. Her face brightened at the very mention of the prince. “Not really, but he’s so busy with his charities and his princely duties, I’m just glad he even remembers who I am.”

“But you’re pen pals, right?”

Rose nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! I send a letter every two weeks, and he always replies! I know he’s only being nice, but it makes me so happy that he’s taking time out to do it. He’s the greatest, sweetest boy in the whole world!”

Nathaniel smiled. “Sounds like it. Maybe . . . next time he comes to Paris, we can have a party and invite him.”

Rose blushed at the idea. “No, I’m sure he’d be much too busy for that!”

“Maybe,” Nathaniel acknowledged. “But we could still try. If his duties and responsibilities keep him so busy, he’d probably be eager to hang out and be a normal teenager for a few hours. Don’t you think?”

She beamed. “Yeah! Maybe he would!”

The older Rose had been convinced that she and Ali would get together in any timeline, but Nathaniel didn’t see any harm in giving the situation a little nudge if he could.

When they returned to the main room, Nathaniel found out that Marc was getting groceries and would be back soon. Luka suggested they should all go over to the house to hang out. (Even though Marinette hadn’t said when they’d be having their next team meeting, Nathaniel agreed with Luka that everyone would probably want to do it right away. And even if a team meeting didn’t happen, all their friends were welcome at their house any time, so they didn’t have any reason not to go.)

They took Coccinelle along with them, and Nathaniel sat down to wait for Marc.


	124. Chapter 124

Why was baby formula so _expensive_? Even though Marc had already been grateful to Mireille for giving Coccinelle breast milk for a couple weeks, he hadn’t realized how big a favor she’d been doing him until she’d stopped doing it and Marc had started buying formula.

As he trudged back to the Liberty with three canvas shopping bags full to bursting, Marc wondered if any of his nursing friends might be willing to sell him some of their milk. It would be better for Coccinelle, and it might even be cheaper.

_No, I can’t ask them that_ , he thought, feeling bad for even considering it. His friends had done so much for him already; asking them for the milk out of their own bodies—which they needed for _their_ babies—would be way over the line. And even though none of them had done anything to make him doubt their friendship, he couldn’t shake the feeling that one wrong move or accidental insult could make them want nothing more to do with him.

And Marc needed friends now more than ever. It wasn’t even a matter of needing them _emotionally_. He needed them to _survive_. If Adrien hadn’t hooked Marc up with the modeling job, Marc never would have been able to afford everything it took to raise a baby. And if Juleka’s family hadn’t given him and his daughter a place to live, they would have been in a desperate situation, since his job didn’t pay so much that he could have rented an apartment.

Very carefully, he made his way up the gangplank, clinging to the bags so he didn’t drop them or spill anything over the side. He’d needed to stock up on his own groceries and baby supplies, but he’d made sure to buy extra food and stuff, trying to contribute to his new household as best he could. He’d decided to try to cook dinner tonight, too. The more he was able to find ways to make himself useful, the better his chances of not getting kicked out when Juleka and her mom got tired of Coccinelle’s crying in the middle of the night.

The ship bobbed slightly as he crossed the deck, and he was thankful that he didn’t have a weak stomach. He’d actually fully acquired his ‘sea legs’ (as Anarka had put it) after less than a day of living there. He descended the stairs, expecting to find Rose and Juleka watching Coccinelle, just as he’d left them.

They weren’t there. All three of them were gone, and the only person in the room was Nathaniel.

Instantly, Marc felt a dizzy sensation in his chest, as if a whirlpool had erupted just behind his sternum, and his heart sent blood rushing into his head. _It’s happened. They’re sick of me already, but they’re too nice to kick me out, so they asked Nathaniel to give me the bad news._

He dropped the grocery bags at the foot of the stairs.

The sound got Nathaniel’s attention. He stood up from the couch and turned to Marc with a smile.

It wasn’t an _I’ve got bad news but I’m going to try to break it to you gently_ smile. It was a real smile. Happy. Excited, even. It was an _I’ve got good news_ smile.

Marc’s heart thumped hard as it tried to get back into a normal working order, and the whirlpool in his chest subsided into calm waters again. But Marc was still wary. “Hi,” he said.

“Hey,” said Nathaniel.

“Where are the girls?”

“They went with Luka to our house. I think we might be having a party soon, so they went ahead and I stayed to wait for you.”

Marc let out a huge breath of relief. “Oh. That’s all?”

Nathaniel looked at him with concern. “Yeah. Are you okay?”

After picking up the bags, Marc moved behind the counter in the kitchen area to unpack and put things away. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

When he glanced at his friend, he saw Nathaniel still looking at him dubiously.

“I . . . I’m very grateful for Juleka’s family taking me in,” Marc said as he put groceries away. “But I’m not used to people doing things for me like this. I keep . . . expecting them to get tired of me and want me gone.”

“They’re not going to do that,” Nathaniel said. It didn’t sound like empty reassurance. He sounded certain of it.

Marc carefully folded one of the bags. “I know they’re too nice to kick me out, but . . . people don’t usually . . . ”

“They won’t do that,” Nathaniel said, his tone warm. “And even if they did—which they won’t—I’m sure we could find space in our house for you and Coccinelle.”

Marc looked down and tugged nervously on his fingerless gloves. “It’s okay. Y-you don’t need to—” A hand landed on his shoulder, and he jumped, startled to find Nathaniel standing beside him.

“You have friends, Marc,” he said. “You and Coccinelle won’t be alone. Ever.”

The two of them finished putting the groceries away in silence. Marc knew it wasn’t fair to his friends to doubt them, but he couldn’t help how he felt—how all of his experiences prior to Marinette butting into his life a year ago had caused him to feel.

But he resolved to try. He would try to believe that what he had now—this amazing feeling of warmth and safety that his friends gave him—wasn’t a fleeting thing.

Once they were done in the kitchen, Marc asked, “So there’s a party?”

“Probably.” Nathaniel shrugged. “It was more implied than stated. Although, if enough people show up, doesn’t it become a party automatically?”

“Only if they’re in a good mood,” Marc pointed out.

They came around the counter, and Nathaniel stopped Marc from heading back up the stairs with a simple, “Hold on.”

Marc watched him, waiting.

Nathaniel’s mouth slowly but surely stretched into a smile. “I’ve got something for you first.”

Curious, Marc moved closer to him.

Nathaniel held out a small box: hexagonal and black with red markings. It looked old.

“What’s this?” Marc asked, taking it carefully.

“Open it.”

Marc did so—and was immediately blinded by a purple orb of light which rose into the air and became a small, lavender-colored creature.

“Ah!” Marc jerked away from it, barely keeping hold of the box without dropping it. “What’s that?”

The little creature bowed its head. “I am a kwami. My name is Nooroo. At your service, master.”

Marc blinked and stared. “A w-what?”

“Whoa,” Nathaniel breathed. Somehow, he looked nearly as surprised as Marc felt. “She gave you that one?”

“That one what?” Marc really wished someone would explain what was going on.

“That Miraculous,” Nathaniel said.

Marc finally noticed that the box held more than the kwami creature. There was a brooch inside it—a small, oval stone with four thin, wing-like points. “This is a Miraculous?” His brain was having a really hard time keeping up with everything. It was still caught on the tiny, magical, talking creature part.

The creature—Nooroo—floated above the brooch. “This is the Butterfly Miraculous. It grants the power to create champions to fight for you.”

_Butterfly Miraculous. Champions._

Marc’s throat tightened, but he managed to squeak out, “Hawk Moth’s Miraculous?”

“That’s correct, master,” said Nooroo.

Marc flung the Miraculous across the room out of sheer self-preservation. “Yaaagh!”

“I’m sorry for upsetting you, master!” It was hard to tell with his small size, but it looked like Nooroo was cringing away from Marc.

Nathaniel ran over to scoop up the Miraculous and its box. “It’s all right, Marc! Calm down.”

Marc eyed Nooroo with fear and suspicion. “He worked with Hawk Moth?”

“He was enslaved by Hawk Moth,” Nathaniel said, then asked the kwami, “Isn’t that right?”

Nooroo nodded. “I’m very ashamed of what Hawk Moth used me to do. Miraculouses are meant to be used for good. Being used for evil is one of worst things that can happen to us. In her mercy, Ladybug has allowed me a chance to make amends for my former master’s misdeeds. Please, new master, will you help me?”

_New master?_ Nooroo had used the word ‘master’ several times since appearing. “You—you don’t mean _me_ ,” Marc said in disbelief.

Nooroo sent a questioning look toward Nathaniel, who nodded.

“Marc is the one Ladybug told me to give you to,” Nathaniel told the kwami. “Although I didn’t know which Miraculous was in the box until he opened it.”

Moving a bit like the butterfly he sort of resembled, Nooroo fluttered closer to Marc. “Master—”

Marc jerked away. “I’m not anyone’s master. I—I’m just Marc.”

Nathaniel came closer to him—slowly, like Marc might be frightened of him, too. “He’s not a threat. Ladybug said he’d been used against his will. He was a victim of Hawk Moth, at least as much as either of us were.”

_Ladybug again._ “Why do you keep talking about Ladybug like you know her?”

Nathaniel’s gaze slid away. “Because I . . . do.”

“What?!” Marc gasped. “Since when? Why didn’t you tell me? What’s she like?”

“I couldn’t tell you at the time, but . . . you know White Rabbit?”

Marc nodded. He’d been paying close attention to the Ladyblog’s news about all the new heroes.

Nathaniel rubbed the back of his neck. “That . . . was me.”

That piece of news nearly overloaded Marc’s brain. His best friend was a superhero. His best friend was a _superhero_ , and he’d _never told him_! “What? When? How?”

“It’s kinda complicated, so I’ll explain it later. But just a little while ago, Ladybug switched my Miraculous, so I have a different one now.” Nathaniel held up his hand, and Marc noticed a strange ring on his thumb. “Orikko, you can come out.”

Another kwami creature—this one orange with a rooster-like appearance—came out of Nathaniel’s pocket. “Hello, Marc,” Orikko said cheerfully.

The two kwamis caught sight of one another and fell together like old friends who hadn’t seen each other in a long time.

Marc shook his head, trying to straighten out his thoughts. “Wait. If Hawk Moth’s Miraculous is here, where is Hawk Moth?”

“That’s also complicated, but he was defeated earlier today. Ladybug took his and Mayura’s Miraculouses and picked new people for them.”

Marc nearly didn’t make it to the couch before his knees gave out. “Hawk Moth’s gone? And Ladybug picked me for Hawk Moth’s Miraculous?”

“Apparently.” Nathaniel took a seat beside him.

“That can’t be right. She doesn’t even know me!”

“How do you know?”

“Because I hardly know _anyone_.”

“You know Marinette. And Adrien.”

“Yeah, I know Marinette and Adrien and Juleka and the rest of our friends from school and some of the people at work, but I don’t know any _superheroes_. Other than you, I guess.”

Nathaniel shook his head. “You’re not listening. You know Marinette and Adrien.”

All Marc could do was stare at Nathaniel and wait for his words to make sense. “Are you saying . . . ” No, Marc had to be misunderstanding.

With a deep breath, Nathaniel said, “I’m not sure I should be telling you this now, so you’ll have to act surprised if they tell you later, but . . . Marinette and Adrien are Ladybug and Cat Noir.”

If finding out that Nathaniel was a superhero had _almost_ overloaded his brain, this last revelation had done it outright. Marc stared straight ahead, eyes wide but unseeing, his body and face completely frozen, as if he were an android who’d been suddenly switched off. He had absolutely no energy to outwardly emote right now; he needed every bit of it to process the information he’d just been given.

With the speed of thought, his mind replayed every interaction with them that he could remember, recasting the roles to see if they fit.

Ladybug discovering his _Diary of_ _Ladybug_ story.

_Oh, sheesh, how humiliating._

Marinette telling Marc and Nathaniel to give each other a chance after Marc was deakumatized.

_That was absolutely a Marinette thing to do._

Cat Noir talking him through his feelings after Mireille had told him she’d been planning to put Coccinelle up for adoption.

_He doesn’t seem like he even has a serious side._

Cat Noir giving Marc and Juleka modeling lessons.

_That one actually makes perfect sense._

Most people at school didn’t see that side of him, but Adrien _owned_ the catwalk, and he could get pretty teasing and playful when the makeup ladies fawned over him. He complained about his busy schedule, and the smaller photo shoots were more of a bother to him than anything, but when Adrien was in his element at a full shoot, with dressers and makeup people and photographers everywhere, it was obvious to anyone that he enjoyed it. He wasn’t as flirty and jokey as Cat Noir was, but the way he worked to make everyone more comfortable with casual suggestions and playful banter was a version of him that definitely bridged the gap between the quiet, polite Adrien from school and the outrageous, outgoing superhero.

_I can’t believe I’m actually friends with Ladybug and Cat Noir._

Marinette’s flustered reaction when Marc had told her Coccinelle’s name suddenly made a lot more sense.

_Ladybug gets flustered._

Marinette had gotten so flustered and nervous around Adrien before they’d gotten together, and the whole time he’d been her flirty partner.

_They must not have known._ It was the only logical explanation. _They must have found out, and that’s why they’re together now._ The two of them fit perfectly together, and they had moved effortlessly from flustered awkwardness to a perfectly in-sync couple.

Everything was making so much more sense now.

Everything except why Ladybug—Marinette—had chosen _Marc_ of all people to take Hawk Moth’s former Miraculous.

“Why me?” Marc asked softly, somehow sure that even raising the question would make everyone come to their senses and realize they _didn’t_ want to give it to him.

“You’ll have to ask her,” Nathaniel said, almost as softly. “But why not you? You’ve got a great imagination, which the user of the Butterfly Miraculous probably needs. You’re honest and kind. You’re a good person. And, if it helps, this isn’t the only Miraculous getting a new owner. The team’s growing a lot today.”

That did help it make more sense. Marc wasn’t getting singled out as special. He was only one of several. Though getting this particular Miraculous _was_ pretty special. Marc would ask Marinette later why she wanted him to have it, but he thought Nathaniel had a point. Marinette had plenty of her own imagination, but she was already Ladybug. Nathaniel had a great imagination, too, but for whatever reason she’d wanted him for a different Miraculous.

One other possible reason occurred to Marc as he pondered it. He thought back to when he’d asked Marinette for help with Mireille’s angry fans. Marinette had called him an adorable puppy dog. Sweet. Innocent. In other words, completely harmless. She had said that was exactly what he’d needed to be for the public to accept him, and she’d been right.

The public was definitely going to be suspicious of whoever the next holder of the Butterfly Miraculous was, no matter how much Ladybug and Cat Noir vouched for them. So it made sense that she might want the most harmless person she knew in the role, someone who, in her words, only a real monster could hate.

While Marc had experienced plenty of apathy, disinterest, ridicule, annoyance, and even dislike from other people in his life, even he had to admit that he’d never been hated or mistrusted.

If he was right about her reason for picking him—if his friend Marinette and his hero Ladybug needed him to be the most harmless, trustworthy superhero possible—then how could he possibly refuse?

Nooroo approached him carefully, his tentative posture something that Marc understood all too well. “Will you accept my Miraculous, master?”

With careful movements, Marc took the Butterfly Miraculous from where Nathaniel had set it on the couch. “I don’t want to be anyone’s master.”

Nooroo’s face fell.

Marc pinned the Miraculous to his collar, where it immediately transformed into a small, green oval. “But I’d like to be your friend.”

The joy that lit up the cute little kwami’s face was like a sunbeam breaking through storm clouds. “Thank you, mas—uh . . . ”

“Call me Marc. It’s nice to meet you, Nooroo.”

With a trill of delight, Nooroo glomped onto Marc’s neck.

Marc laughed and gently touched Nooroo’s wings. “That tickles.”

Nathaniel stood, grinning eagerly. “Want to see something cool? Orikko, sunrise.” With a flash of light, Nathaniel transformed.

Never had Marc thought that he’d actually get to see a real superhero transformation. It was so cool, the only response that came out of him was an, “Aaah,” that gradually rose in pitch.

“The name’s Cockerel,” said Na—no, Cockerel. He held his arms out to the side and did a turn so Marc could take in his costume. It was a cool design, with a lot more detail than his White Rabbit costume had had. Lots of swishes in shades of red and orange which kind of resembled feathers, with two large wing designs on his back, stretching from shoulders to calves. He didn’t even have a mask, though his hair was done in a dramatic way that totally changed his look, and it did look like there was some kind of magical eyeliner or something around his eyes—or maybe the magic had actually changed the color of his skin in those spots.

Marc jumped to his feet. “You look amazing!”

“I know! I _feel_ amazing, too! Now you go!”

“M-me?” Marc said. _Oh, right. I can transform. Because that’s how Miraculouses work._ He looked to Nooroo. “Is that okay?”

Nooroo smiled like he was thrilled to be asked. “Of course, ma—Marc. I am at your service. Simply say, ‘Nooroo, wings rise,’ and when you want to detransform, say, ‘Nooroo, wings fall.’ ”

Marc gulped, trying to absorb the weight of the moment. “Nooroo, wings rise.”

A wave of something Marc had never felt before ( _Magic. This is magic!_ ) washed over him from his head to his toes, and then he was standing there feeling stronger and more awake than he had in weeks. Maybe ever.

“Woo!” Cockerel shouted, pumping a fist in the air.

The new hero looked down at his hands, gloved in soft shades of grey with pale lavender seams, his left hand holding a straight cane. It made him desperate to see the rest of the costume, and he found the nearest reflective surface (which happened to be a window, since night had fallen outside) to see himself.

His costume had a high collar and a minimal mask which did more to make his eyes look bigger than to really hide his identity. The body of the costume was fairly simple, a head-to-toe jumpsuit like Ladybug’s, only without very much in the way of decoration or embellishment, mostly a soft grey with those same pale lavender seams here and there. It was such an understated look that, for a moment, he was a little disappointed.

“Whoa,” said Cockerel. “You’ve got a cape.”

It took some turning to get a decent look at it, but yeah, there was a cape. Sort of. It had four points—like there were four smaller capes—and it was an absolute kaleidoscope of greens, blues, and purples, the colors all bright and shimmering. It was beautiful enough to make up for the drabness of the rest of the costume.

“So, what should we call you?” Cockerel asked, grinning.

“I think . . . Monarc. Is that okay? Does it sound . . . egotistical?”

“Not at all. I think it sounds great.”

Monarc relaxed and hoped everyone else would think the name was okay, too.

“Wanna head back to the house?” Cockerel asked.

“Like this?”

“Sure. It’s dark. Nobody’ll probably see us. Even if they do, I don’t think it would be a problem.”

Monarc desperately wanted to get out and take his new superpowers for a spin. _I can’t believe this is really happening to me._

They went up on deck, the cool night air invigorating Monarc’s lungs even as his superpowers made his body want to run and jump and flip and do all kinds of things he didn’t have the athleticism to do as himself. Things he’d written about but had never dreamed would actually happen.

Instead of going down the gangplank, Monarc was drawn to the bow of the ship, sucking in a deep breath through his nose, feeling so unbelievably alive. Something fluttered behind him, and he heard Cockerel’s sharp intake of breath.

Monarc turned to see what had happened and caught a glimpse of something new behind him. His cape—what he’d thought was a cape—had lifted and stiffened to become butterfly wings. “I have wings?” Monarc gasped, spinning to see them. Of course, since they were stuck to him, he ended up looking like a dog chasing its tail, but at least Cockerel was the only one there to see him.

Cockerel came over and touched the wings. “That’s so cool! I want wings!” Then he frowned in concentration, as if he could make wings just sprout from his back on command. He strode past Monarc and climbed onto the railing to stand on it, looking out at the Seine.

“I don’t think you can just . . . ” Monarc started.

His voice left him as the wing designs on Cockerel’s back peeled away and became actual wings.

“No way . . . ” Monarc breathed.

Thrusting both his fists in the air, Cockerel crowed—actually _crowed_ —with delight, then leapt into the air, his new wings flapping powerfully, lifting him higher and higher.

_I guess Adrien’s not the only one who gets to let loose when he transforms_ , Monarc thought.

Trusting that his butterfly wings weren’t purely decorative, he ran at the railing, leapt onto it with one foot, and used it to boost himself into the air. He didn’t know how he made his wings actually move— _Magic._ —but they flapped back and forth, pushing Monarc into the air with remarkably little effort. Soon, he had caught up with Cockerel.

The two of them raced through the sky, staying above most of the buildings and trying to keep their shouts of excitement quiet enough that people might not notice them. Cockerel had a lot more speed in the air, but Monarc found he could hover in a way that Cockerel couldn’t really manage.

After a few minutes, they paused to take in the view, Monarc hovering with lazy flaps of his wings as if he were treading water in a pool and Cockerel flying slow circles around him. Paris was gorgeous at night, especially from a hundred feet in the air.

Monarc’s life had taken a lot of strange turns lately, but this had to be one of the strangest. Even now, with the Miraculous’s power thrumming through his body and the crisp night air in his lungs and rustling through his hair, it was hard to believe this was really happening.

_I’m really a superhero_ , he thought. _I’m part of a superhero team._ He couldn’t wait to meet the others.

“Cockerel, do I know the rest of the team already?” he asked.

Still circling him, Cockerel winked the next time he passed close enough to make eye contact. “Most of them. Though I don’t know who else Ladybug is picking tonight, so I don’t know about everyone. We will soon, though.”

For some reason, the thought of the Ladybug story he was working on suddenly entered Monarc’s mind. It would have to be scrapped. How could they keep writing about Mightillustrator and Reverser working with Ladybug and Cat Noir after all this?

Monarc smiled. “Hey, Nathaniel? We’re gonna have to start a new comic.”

Cockerel laughed and did a loop in the air. “Yeah. We will.”


	125. Chapter 125

Cat Noir and Ladybug landed on Chloe’s balcony just as the sun was nearly past the horizon. _I hope this goes well_ , he thought.

They passed the seating area on Chloe’s ludicrously over-sized balcony and stopped at the glass door. Ladybug knocked.

The exterior walls of Chloe’s suite in her dad’s hotel were nearly all window, so they could see that her lights were on and Chloe was standing at her closet. When she heard the knock, she turned, spotted them, and lit up with a huge smile. Barely pausing to slam her closet doors closed, she hurried to let them in.

“Ladybug! You’re visiting me!” Chloe’s smile turned into a sneer when she spotted Cat Noir. “Did you have to bring _him_?”

“Is that any way to greet a superhero?” Cat Noir asked her.

Chloe evidently decided to pretend he wasn’t there. She gave Ladybug a hug so quick that Ladybug didn’t have time to do anything but freeze up in surprise. “Come in! Come in! Oh, but be quiet. The baby’s sleeping.”

Cat Noir followed Ladybug into the suite. It looked mostly the same as he’d last seen it, but one of the previously open areas had been filled with baby stuff—including a very fancy crib which currently held a sleeping Clarisse. There were also a couple of cots nearby, as well as bags that looked like someone might have been living out of them.

After seeing that, Cat Noir wasn’t all that surprised to find Sabrina and Pierre waiting in Chloe’s TV room when they entered it.

“Ladybug? Cat Noir?” Pierre jumped up from the couch. “Oh, wow! Real superheroes!”

“Hey!” Chloe shot him a dirty look. “ _I’m_ a real superhero, too.”

He took her hand like he was going to drop to his knees and kiss it, though he didn’t go quite that far. “Yes, yes, I know, Chloe. You’re the _best_ superhero.”

Cat Noir glanced at Ladybug in time to see her roll her eyes, which inexplicably amused him.

“Can we sit down and talk for a minute?” Ladybug asked Chloe.

Chloe let out a soft squeal. “You’re going to give me my Miraculous?” Turning to Pierre and Sabrina, she shooed them with a wave of her hand. “You two leave. This is superhero business.”

Both of them immediately got up and started for the door.

Cat Noir caught Pierre’s shirt. “Hold on. You two actually need to stay.”

“M-me?” Pierre asked, his face flushing. “Why would you want to talk to _me_?”

Trying to soften his expression as much as he could, Cat Noir told him, “Just sit down. Okay, Pierre?”

Pierre’s eyes widened. “You know my name? Cat Noir knows my name?”

Ladybug, clearly getting impatient, caught Sabrina by the shoulders and physically walked her back to the couch. “Just sit down, you two.”

They did so obediently. After all of them were seated on the couches, Chloe asked, “You _are_ here to give me my Miraculous, right?”

“Possibly,” Ladybug acknowledged. “But it’ll depend on how the next few minutes go. We have some things we need to talk to you about.”

Leaning back to get more comfortable, Chloe eyed the two heroes. “When did you get back, anyway? Where are those replacements?”

“They’ve been relieved,” Ladybug said. “I guess you haven’t seen the Ladyblog yet, but there’s some pretty big news. Hawk Moth has finally been defeated.”

“Really?!” Sabrina squealed and vibrated with excitement. “That’s great news!”

Pierre expressed a similar sentiment, but all Chloe had to say was, “What? Without _me_?”

Ladybug sighed. “Yes, Chloe. Without you. If it makes you feel any better, it happened without Cat Noir and I, too.”

“Yep. The final victory was all Ladybird and Black Tom.” Cat Noir shrugged. “But we were never in this for the glory, were we, Milady?”

“That’s right, Kitty.”

Chloe huffed and crossed her arms and her legs. “I _guess_ that’s good news. But what are you here for, then? If there’s no more villain to fight, you don’t need another superhero.”

“Before we continue, are there any cameras in this suite?” Ladybug asked. “Or anyone who might be able to listen?”

Chloe looked offended at the idea. “Of course not! As if I would allow anyone to snoop on me!”

While he believed her, Cat Noir decided to play it safe and took out his stick. He’d found a feature on it a while back that could scan for bugs—magical, electronic, or otherwise. After a quick sweep, he said, “We’re good,” and perched on the back of the couch Ladybug was sitting on.

Ladybug rubbed her hands together absently. “The fact of the matter is that there are more potential supervillains out there than just Hawk Moth. We don’t know who they are or when they might strike, but we need to be ready. So it’s been decided that instead of disbanding the team, we’re making it bigger.”

Chloe perked up again. “Bigger? Really?” Girlish eagerness shifted in a flash to forced maturity. “That sounds like a very wise decision, Ladybug. I approve. I always knew you were the smart one.”

Cat Noir resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

“How much bigger?” Sabrina asked.

“More than twice what we had before,” Ladybug answered.

Pierre beamed with pride. “And you want Chloe to be part of it. Of course you do. She’s wonderful.”

Although she didn’t outwardly acknowledge his praise, Chloe did appear—to someone who had known her a very long time—to be pleased by it.

“ _Maybe_ ,” Ladybug said pointedly, leaning her elbows on her knees. “There are some conditions you need to know about, Chloe. First, this is a reserve team. We’re not going to be transforming whenever we feel like. We’ll need to be discreet, showing up just enough to remind people we’re around to protect them if a threat shows up, but not gallivanting around so much that people get annoyed with us or start making demands outside our jurisdiction. We’ll need to keep all our identities secret, and lying low most of the time will help with that. The fact that your identity is already public does not make you an exception. We will not be flaunting our superpowers. Do you understand?”

Chloe’s face said she was disappointed, but her answer was, “Of course I understand. Superheroing is serious business.”

“Second,” Ladybug continued, “I am team leader. I’m not a dictator, but the group needs a leader, and I’m it. You can’t go off on your own or try to usurp my position by anything other than a unanimous vote from the rest of the team. Do you understand and agree to that?”

“Of course you’re team leader. You’re Ladybug. Who else could be team leader?”

“Hold onto that thought,” Ladybug muttered, just low enough for Chloe not to hear. “Okay, third, there are no secret identities among the team anymore. You’ll be responsible for making sure you don’t leak _any_ clues about your teammates’ identities.”

“Really? I’ll know who you are?” Chloe kicked her feet like an excited toddler. “We’re gonna be best friends!”

“We’re not gonna be best friends, Chloe,” Ladybug said. “But I do hope we can become friends.”

Cat Noir slid down the back of the couch, draping his arm over Ladybug’s shoulders as he did so. “I’m afraid the position of Ladybug’s best friend is taken. Even her second-best friend is taken. Sorry, Chloe.”

Chloe snorted. “You can’t possibly mean yourself, alley cat.”

“Kids, focus.” Ladybug moved Cat Noir’s arm off of her and returned it to him. “This is extremely serious, Chloe. We need to know that we can trust you, that you’ll take this seriously, and that you’ll be a responsible team member. It _cannot_ be The Chloe Show. Got it? I won’t try to stop you from being yourself completely, but you need to keep it reasonable, and your behavior cannot put the team or our mission in danger. Do you agree to everything I’ve said so far?”

To her credit, Chloe actually considered Ladybug’s words for several seconds. Then she gave a firm nod. “I do, Ladybug. I know a little more about responsibility than I used to. You can count on me.”

“Yeah,” Sabrina piped up. “Chloe’s been super responsible! You’d be so proud of her, Ladybug! She takes such good care of her baby!”

Ladybug smiled at Sabrina. “You’re a very loyal friend to her, aren’t you, Sabrina?”

Sabrina’s spine stiffened. “Of course! Protect and serve! It’s the Raincomprix motto!”

“Does that apply to people other than Chloe?” Cat Noir asked.

Sabrina cocked her head in confusion.

Cat Noir clarified. “Could it apply to . . . all of Paris?”

As Sabrina’s eyes widened with understanding, Chloe sucked in a shocked breath. Sabrina’s hands flew to her mouth. “You’re not talking about . . . _me_ being a superhero, too, are you?”

“Maybe,” Cat Noir said. “You up for it?”

“Under the same conditions we just outlined to Chloe,” Ladybug said. “Including keeping your identity secret.”

“Yes!” Sabrina blurted, then clapped her hands over her mouth again. Briefly. “Yes, yes, yes!” She shot to her feet and jumped up and down in front of Chloe. “We can be hero partners for real, Chloe! Isn’t that amazing?”

Chloe’s expression shifted through several emotions quickly: surprise, doubt, annoyance, and finally, she looked mildly pleased. “We do have a lot of practice, I suppose.”

Cat Noir looked over to Pierre, who was sitting in the far corner of one of the couches, watching everything with a serene expression. “Which just leaves, you, Pierre,” Cat Noir told him.

Pierre jumped. “Me? What about me?”

Ladybug moved to sit next to him. “You’ve got a good heart, Pierre, and I know you try hard to do the right thing.”

“You do?” he asked. “How? Have we met before?”

“Before I answer that, can you tell me how you’d feel about joining the team along with Chloe and Sabrina?” Ladybug asked.

Pierre looked at her as if she’d asked him something totally nonsensical. “Join . . . the team? You mean . . . the superhero team?”

Ladybug nodded.

“How? You mean like Alfred or something?”

Ladybug laughed. “No, Pierre. I mean as a hero. With your own Miraculous.”

Pierre’s eyes slowly grew wider and wider. “But—but—I’m not a hero! I’m not anything! I’m just support!”

“Do you want a chance to be more?” Ladybug asked gently. “I know you think Chloe is better than you, but this would put you on more equal footing with her. You want to be her partner, don’t you?”

“Yes, of course!” he blurted before he could think better of it.

“Superheroes are only people under the mask,” Ladybug told him.

Cat Noir nodded and leaned in. “They’re really impressive, but they’re still only people doing a job.”

Pierre blinked, his eyes narrowing as they darted from Ladybug to Cat Noir and back. Cat Noir waited, smiling, as Pierre figured out why what they’d just said sounded so familiar. It was what they’d told him when they’d met with him in that fast food place months ago, when he was going off about how Chloe was so much better than him because she’d been a hero.

Finally, it clicked, and Pierre recoiled in shock. “You! No! You?”

Ladybug smiled at him. “We know you’re a good person, Pierre. And you know we’re just regular people like you. All of us. What do you say? Will you agree to our terms and join the team?”

Pierre still looked absolutely stunned, but he nodded. “I—yes. Yes, I . . . would like that.”

“Good.” Cat Noir stood up. “Now that that’s settled, there’s only one last thing to do before we give you your Miraculouses.”

“There’s more?” Chloe asked.

Cat Noir nodded. “We show you our identities, and you tell us if you can still agree to the terms Ladybug laid out.”

Suspicion narrowed Chloe’s eyes. “Pierre, what are they talking about?”

Pierre gulped. “I . . . don’t think that’s my place to say, Chloe.”

After waiting until everyone was looking at him, Cat Noir said, “Claws in.”

Sabrina let out a short shriek.

Chloe jerked back, pulling her legs up onto the couch with her like she’d seen a mouse. “Adrien?!” It took less than a second for her whole demeanor to change. She launched himself at him, throwing her arms around his neck. “Adrikins! You’re a superhero, too! I always knew you were amazing!”

He pulled her away gently, smiling fondly. “You sure changed your tune quick.”

“Nonsense. I’ve always supported Cat Noir. Ask anyone.”

Adrien chuckled. As long as she wasn’t hurting anyone, Chloe’s ridiculous behavior could actually be kind of endearing. “Whatever you say, Chloe.”

Ladybug wasn’t as amused, which she expressed with a long-suffering sigh. “Spots off.”

Once again, Chloe jerked away from the newly detransformed hero. “You?” she said with disgust.

Sabrina shrieked again, but this time she kept her hands over her mouth so it wasn’t as loud.

Marinette crossed her arms. “Yes, Chloe. It’s me. Still consider yourself Ladybug’s biggest fan?”

Chloe gaped, apparently horrified. “You must be an impostor!”

“She’s not,” Adrien told her. “Marinette’s been Ladybug from the beginning. Everything you admire about Ladybug was always a part of Marinette, Chloe. You just didn’t want to see it.”

Chloe’s eyes twitched convulsively. She stared at Marinette, and Marinette stared right back. For two solid minutes, no one said anything.

When it looked like Chloe might just stand there in shock for the rest of the night, Marinette asked, “So, Chloe, can you still abide by the terms I gave you? Especially the part about accepting me as the team leader?”

As if hoping someone else would tell her this was all a prank, Chloe looked to Adrien, then Sabrina, then Pierre, then back to Marinette. Then she let out a loud sound of frustration before slumping onto the couch. “Fine! I _guess_ . . . _maybe_ . . . it’s _possible_ . . . ”—her tone dropped suddenly in volume—“that I may have been wrong about you, Marinette.”

Marinette’s eyes widened with blatant surprise. “Really?”

Chloe shot her a glare. “Yes. Can we start over or what?”

“Could you say that without sounding angry about it?”

Heaving a sigh, Chloe stood and composed herself enough to look at Marinette with something like civility. “I’d like to be part of your team, Ladybug. And I . . . ”—a quick glance at Adrien—“I’d . . . like to be friends. You’re my hero and the girl Adrien loves, so clearly you can’t be as lame as I thought you were.”

“Close enough.” Marinette put out her hand. “Friend?”

Hesitantly, Chloe took her hand and shook it. “Friend.”

“Yay!” Adrien cheered, wrapping both of them up in a group hug. “I’m so happy to see you two getting along!” He really, really was, too. Chloe had been his only friend for most of his childhood, and Marinette was the person dearest to him now. It felt amazing to see them even _trying_ to make amends.

Both girls struggled against being smushed up next to each other, which amused Adrien so much he only tightened the hug. After a few seconds, their combined strength overpowered him, and they broke away.

“Right. So.” Chloe held out her hand expectantly.

Marinette took out a Miraculous box, started handing it over, hesitated, then finally put it in Chloe’s hand.

Chloe squealed with delight and popped open the box.

Pollen appeared in a flash of yellow light. “My queen!”

“Pollen!”

While Chloe had a surprisingly affectionate reunion with her kwami, Sabrina and Pierre stood by, looking a little jealous of the tiny being.

“It looks like those two are gonna be a minute,” Adrien said to Marinette.

Marinette went to Sabrina and held out another Miraculous box—the one containing the Dog Miraculous. Sabrina took it with a look of awe as Marinette told her which it was and what the powers were. When Sabrina opened the box, a dog kwami came out and greeted her.

Sabrina laughed. “Well, since we can’t be the ladybug and the cat, I guess the bee and the dog is next best.” She put on the Miraculous: a thin, torc-style necklace with dog head designs at the ends of the open circle, which changed into its camouflaged form when she put it on.

“Pretty,” Pierre said admiringly.

Finally, Marinette gave the last box to Pierre. It contained the Goat Miraculous.

Blinking like he’d already forgotten that he was getting one, Pierre took the box. “Are you really sure?”

Adrien took Marinette’s hand, standing beside her. “We’re sure. We believe in you, Pierre. And I think Chloe believes in you, too, or she would have said something by now.”

That made Pierre smile. “I’m going to do the best I possibly can. For you guys, for Chloe, for Clarisse. And for Paris, of course.”

“And you won’t have to do it alone,” Marinette reminded him. “We’re a team. We’ll support each other.”

Pierre opened the box and met his kwami, then looked at what was inside the box. “There’s two?”

“Yeah,” Marinette said, gesturing at her earrings. “It’s the only other Miraculous I’ve seen that comes in two parts. Your kwami can tell you more about what that means.”

He took out the two black pieces of jewelry shaped like ram’s horns. “Are they . . . hair clips?”

“They sure are,” Adrien said. “It’s a good thing your hair’s long enough to use them. They’ll turn into something more discreet when you’ve got them on.”

Pierre’s blond hair had grown out a bit over the past several months. With the awkwardness of uncertainty, he put the clips in his hair, which helped keep his bangs out of his face. With a small flash of magic, the clips changed from ram horns to simple bobby-pin-sized bars: silver with a black stripe. While most guys might not pull off hair clips, Pierre’s looks leaned enough toward pretty/cute that it worked for him, in an anime kind of way.

“When do we get to transform?” he asked.

Marinette chewed her lip in thought. Adrien knew she didn’t want everyone just running around transformed all the time, but he knew more than anyone how exciting getting a Miraculous was.

He nudged her with his shoulder. “You know there’s zero chance of keeping everyone from transforming as soon as they get them, right? When I got mine, I didn’t even give Plagg a chance to explain everything first.”

She crossed her arms. “Not everyone’s as impatient as some people.”

“Go ahead and check. I’ll bet at least someone is transformed right now.”

The look in her eyes said that she wanted him to be wrong but knew he probably wasn’t. “Fine. Tikki, spots on.” Once she transformed, she checked her yo-yo, bringing up the map. “Wha—?”

Adrien looked over her shoulder. Sure enough, there were two signals active. Adrien chuckled. “I’m surprised there’s only two.”

Ladybug poked aggressively at her communicator. As soon as it connected she said, “Cockerel, where are you?”

“We’re in the sky!”

Adrien and Ladybug raised their eyebrows at each other. “Come again?” she asked.

“We’re flying! Our costumes have wings!”

Burning with sudden excitement and jealousy, Adrien grabbed for Ladybug’s communicator. She kept a hold on it, but her hands were trapped in his. “How?!” he demanded into the communicator. “ _I_ want wings!”

“Cats don’t have wings, silly,” Ladybug said, pulling out of his grasp. While Adrien pouted, she told Cockerel, “You can explain that one to us later. Why are you guys transformed?”

Cockerel’s gone grew confused. “Isn’t it okay? It’s pretty dark out, so I figured no one would see us.”

Ladybug sighed. “Fine. It’s fine. Do you know where Luka and the others are?”

“They were headed back to our house.”

At the edge of his vision, Adrien saw the surprise and curiosity that lit up on Chloe’s face.

“For what?” asked Ladybug.

“Impromptu party?” Cockerel suggested.

Ladybug put her hand to her forehead, then slid an annoyed look to Adrien. She knew he’d been right, which made him smirk. “Why not? See you guys soon.” She snapped her yo-yo closed.

Adrien pulled out his phone and texted Alix, making sure she and the group she was with knew about the party. She texted back immediately saying they were already at the house. “Guess they’re just waiting for us,” he told Ladybug.

Despite initial annoyance, Ladybug got on board with the team party idea pretty quickly. “I guess it’s as good a time as any, since Geneviève and Nathalie are still out for a while. Everyone go ahead and transform, and we’ll go to our house.”

“What about Clarisse?” Sabrina asked.

“Have Jean-Patrice watch her,” Chloe said.

Pierre gave her a weird look. Clearly, Chloe had still not managed to learn her butler’s name. “He . . . yeah. Good idea,” Pierre said, giving up on trying to correct her. “He lives close, and he’s got a baby too, so he’s got everything she might need. Plus, he won’t ask questions about why we need him to watch her.”

“You can catch up to us once you’re finished,” Chloe said. “Pollen, buzz on!”

As soon as she transformed, she tried to head for the balcony, but Ladybug caught her arm. “We’re going to wait for him, Queen Bee. We’re a team, remember?”

Adrien was pleasantly surprised when Queen Bee actually stayed put without arguing, though she did look like she _wanted_ to argue.

Pierre mollified her a bit by giving her cow eyes. “You’re so beautiful.”

“Yes, I am.” Queen Bee plopped down onto the couch, crossed her legs, and waved her hand at him. “Hurry up.”

While Pierre took Clarisse out, Adrien and Sabrina transformed, then Cat Noir kept the girls entertained with funny jokes, and they colluded to tease him by pretending his jokes weren’t funny.

As soon as Pierre got back, he transformed (his costume had not only floppy goat ears but two little horns sticking out of his hair), and they all headed across the rooftops toward home.

Even though it was dark out, the night was still young, and Cat Noir couldn’t wait to spend it with his friends.

His team.

His family.


	126. Chapter 126

“Good evening, and welcome to _Face to Face_. I’m Nadja Chamak. Tonight, Ladybug and Cat Noir are here to answer the questions that have been on everyone’s lips since they declared victory over Hawk Moth with a single photograph.”

_They look good_ , Gabriel thought as his son and future daughter-in-law smiled and waved. They were on a couch across from the host, Ladybug sitting properly and Cat Noir lounging with one arm draped over the back of the couch and one ankle propped on the opposite knee. The pose would have looked sloppy normally, but it suited the roguish persona he’d adopted in his superhero guise. _Perhaps he has more versatility than I’ve given him credit fo_ _r_ , Gabriel mused.

Gabriel stood in the area behind the cameras and crew—alone, though a nervous assistant director hovered nearby, clearly dithering about approaching him. Gabriel had given Nathalie the day off. She had some personal matter to attend to, and Gabriel found himself unable to refuse her any reasonable request. There were some things a man just couldn’t do once a woman had borne him a child, and being an unnecessarily strict employer was one of them.

“Thank you for having us, Nadja,” said Ladybug. “And congratulations on your son, Leon.”

Nadja beamed with pride. “Thank you very much, Ladybug. How did you even know his name?”

“A heroine never reveals her secrets,” Ladybug answered coyly.

Gabriel smirked. Through his new acquaintance with the Dupain-Chengs, he knew that Nadja was friends with Sabine, so it was only natural that Marinette would have heard news of Nadja’s son. But Ladybug had used that mundane knowledge to both flatter her interviewer and give herself a Santa-like air of friendly intimacy. No matter how clumsy and awkward this girl might sometimes be, she never stopped surprising and impressing Gabriel.

For a brief moment, Gabriel thought that, now that Adrien had made a good match, Gabriel would need to start thinking about Sebastien. Then it occurred to him that Adrien had found Marinette without his help and if Gabriel had had his choice, Adrien would have ended up with Kagami Tsurugi—a perfectly adequate match, but not as good as Marinette. _I suppose I could give Sebastien time to find someone on his own_ , Gabriel concluded munificently, _and only step in if it becomes necessary._

Thoroughly softened, Nadja continued with the interview. “Ladybug, can you confirm for us now that Hawk Moth is indeed defeated?”

“Absolutely, Nadja,” Ladybug said. “Hawk Moth no longer has the Butterfly Miraculous. The Peacock Miraculous formerly used by Mayura has also been recovered.”

“That’s amazing news, but it did come as a bit of a shock to everyone. How did it happen?”

Ladybug shrugged. “We can’t really tell you that part, Nadja. As you know, Cat Noir and I were out of the picture for a while, and our replacements, Ladybird and Black Tom, had taken our place. They were the ones who took down Hawk Moth.”

“I see.” Nadja frowned. “Was the rest of your team not involved either?”

“Nope,” said Cat Noir. “Hawk Moth tried to set a trap and managed to get Ladybird and Black Tom alone, but they turned it around on him and instead of getting their Miraculouses, they convinced him to hand over his.”

Gabriel didn’t like how his son’s description had made it sound like he’d been outsmarted, but there wasn’t much he could do to argue about it. History was written by the victor, after all.

“Convinced?” Nadja asked with surprise. “After all the battles you superheroes fought against him, he was _convinced_ to give up?”

“We were as surprised as you are, Nadja,” said Cat Noir. “I thought for sure Hawk Moth would go down fighting.”

“And what happened to the man who was Hawk Moth?” Nadja asked. “He hasn’t turned himself in to the police, nor has there been any announcement about his identity.”

Both Ladybug and Cat Noir looked uncomfortable at that question. Ladybug said, “To be honest, Nadja, we don’t know who was under the mask.” There were some gasps from Nadja and the stage crew, but Ladybug continued. “Ladybird and Black Tom made some kind of deal with him that meant he would give up the Miraculouses and stop being a villain, and they would keep his identity secret. Even from us and the rest of the team. The deal was already made by the time we found out about it.”

Nadja’s tone grew sharper as she asked, “And where are Ladybird and Black Tom now? Will _they_ not come and answer for why they allowed a supervillain to go free?”

“Ladybird and Black Tom weren’t from around here,” Ladybug said. “And they’ve already gone back to where they belong. So they’re not available to answer your questions. But what would you have done in their place, Nadja? If Hawk Moth had been willing to hand over his Miraculouses to you peacefully, on the condition that you never reveal his identity, wouldn’t you have done it? Isn’t it better to end the violence and fear rather than continue the fight in the hopes that one day we might get justice?”

Nadja faltered and considered it. “I’m a reporter, Ladybug. I’m not sure I _could_ have kept that secret.”

Ladybug smiled. “I understand.” She looked directly into the camera. “Then I’ll pose the same question to everyone watching this. If you’d been faced with that choice, what would you have done? Personally, I doubt Cat Noir and I would have done anything differently than Ladybird and Black Tom did, if we’d been in their shoes.”

_Oh, you most certainly would have_ , Gabriel thought. Nearly anyone else would have. He wouldn’t have had the necessary leverage to force the deal if it had been anyone else under the masks. (And it wasn’t a deal he would have even offered to anyone who couldn’t guarantee him that Emilie would awaken on her own.) But it was nice to know that Ladybug _believed_ , at least, that she would have given him grace. And maybe she really would have—if only for Adrien’s sake.

“While we’re on the subject,” said Nadja, “can you tell us anything about who Ladybird and Black Tom were? We could tell that they were adults, and you just said that they were from somewhere else. Were they heroes from another city—or even another country—who you called in to help for some reason?”

Ladybug shook her head. “I’m afraid we can’t tell you anything about them that you don’t already know. Their identities were secret even from us. A third party—someone we trusted—brought them in to help. And I think they did a great job, don’t you?”

“Well, yes, I suppose they did,” Nadja said, disappointed not to get more. “So what’s next for you and the rest of your team now that Hawk Moth is gone?”

Ladybug grinned. “I’m glad you asked, Nadja.”

Cat Noir leaned forward eagerly. “The short answer is: We’re not going anywhere.”

Gabriel jerked slightly in surprise. He had noticed that the four heroes he knew about were still wearing their Miraculouses, but he’d assumed it would only be long enough to wrap things up and make sure he wouldn’t renege on his deal any time soon. But that wasn’t true? They had _babies_ to care for. What were they thinking?

Ladybug nodded. “That’s right. Hawk Moth wasn’t the only villain in the world, and even though there aren’t any others in Paris right now, that’s no guarantee that there won’t be any in the future. Cat Noir and I and the rest of the team are going to stick around in case we’re needed again. We’ll try to mostly keep a low profile so we don’t get in anyone’s way, but we want to make sure everyone in Paris knows we’re here to protect you from superhuman threats whenever they arise.”

“Right!” Cat Noir agreed. “In fact, we’ve even made the team bigger. Some of you may already have seen some of the new heroes around.”

“Yes, there have been reports.” Nadja looked at the tablet she held. “There were sightings earlier today of a female rabbit hero.”

“That’s Bunnyx,” said Cat Noir.

Nadja asked, “Does this mean White Rabbit is no longer part of the team?”

“White Rabbit, no.” Ladybug exchanged a look with Cat Noir as if deciding how much to say, then went ahead. “But the person who was White Rabbit has a different Miraculous. Now he’s Cockerel.”

“That’s the only rotation we’ve made,” said Cat Noir. “All the other heroes are ones everyone already knows or brand new ones.”

Ladybug turned to camera again. “The Ladyblog will be posting profiles of the new heroes and doing interviews with them.” She gave Nadja a sympathetic look. “Sorry, Nadja, but most of the new heroes aren’t used to the press, and we prefer the . . . less intense approach that the Ladyblog can offer. Not everyone can do well on TV.”

And, since the person who ran the Ladyblog was on the team, they would have complete control over the information that got out while retaining the illusion that it was provided by a semi-impartial third party. _Prudent_ , Gabriel thought.

An expression of annoyance briefly flashed over Nadja’s face, but she covered it quickly. “I understand, Ladybug. But any time any of your team wants to be on my show, all they need to do is ask. If you don’t mind, though, could you at least tell us what you did with the Miraculouses that Hawk Moth gave you?”

“Of course,” Ladybug answered. “The Peacock Miraculous had been damaged, but we were able to repair it.”

_Good_ , Gabriel thought. He’d feared that Louis might not have adequately conveyed his warning about that. But if it had gotten back to the Guardian, hopefully it truly was repaired.

Cat Noir said, “The Peacock and Butterfly Miraculouses have been given to new owners, and they’re part of our team now, too.”

That statement elicited another round of gasps.

“Are you certain that’s a good idea?” asked Nadja.

Ladybug nodded firmly. “ _All_ Miraculouses are meant to be used for good. The new owners of those Miraculous are nothing like their previous owners. They are good, kind people.” She paused, then let out a breath and continued with an air of, _Oh, why not?_ “I normally wouldn’t tell you this, but given how King Monkey is, I doubt he’ll be able to keep from making it obvious. The new Peacock Miraculous holder is actually King Monkey’s wife. So that should tell you something about how much the team trusts her.”

_H_ _is wife?_ Given that Gabriel was certain Ladybug’s team were teens like her, that limited the potential possibilities of their identities considerably. It would be a simple matter to find a list of all marriage registrations within the past year, pull out the teens, compare the list to Marinette’s known associates—

_No._ Gabriel pushed his curiosity aside. He had no reason to want that information anymore.

Although . . . he might have Nathalie look into it. Just so they knew in case . . . there was some problem with the Peacock Miraculous which they might need help with. And it wouldn’t hurt for the teen heroes to have an adult or two who might help them behind the scenes from time to time.

As Nadja reacted with more questions about the married heroes which Ladybug and Cat Noir refused to answer, the A.D. who’d been hovering near Gabriel finally approached and whispered, “Mr. Agreste? Is your son going to be here soon? He’s on right after these two, and we don’t have any other guests to fill in.” The poor young man sounded on the verge of panic.

“Adrien will be here on time,” Gabriel said calmly, not even looking at the A.D. “My son is very punctual.”

There. It was useful to the heroes for him to know their identities. It wouldn’t hurt for him to puzzle out the rest of them if he could.

“And what about the Butterfly Miraculous?” Nadja asked. “How can we know that the person you’ve given it to won’t turn into another Hawk Moth?”

Ladybug cut her hand through the air. “Monarc is the complete opposite of Hawk Moth. He’s kind and gentle and would never want to hurt anyone.”

“He’s also pretty shy,” said Cat Noir, “so don’t expect him to make many public appearances. But we’ll try to get him in front of cameras in a controlled environment enough for everyone to see what kind of person he is.”

“Monarc really is like a butterfly,” Ladybug said. “Have you ever met anyone who hates butterflies? No one hates butterflies. They’re pretty and totally harmless. Hawk Moth was a corruption of everything the Butterfly Miraculous stood for. Once you see more of Monarc, you’ll see that _he’s_ what a butterfly hero is supposed to be.”

Gabriel’s jaw tensed with irritation, but he forced himself to relax. While he did not approve of her characterization of him as a _corruption_ , he was aware that he’d crossed the line more than once. There had been a time, before Emilie had fallen ill, when he’d dreamed of using the Miraculous for good.

Maybe he had corrupted it after all. Or maybe its power had corrupted him. Either way, it was probably better for both of them that Nooroo had a new master now.

Nadja said, “I’m sure we’ll all be eager to find out more about Monarc and the rest of the new heroes. But if we can move on to one final topic . . . I know you haven’t exactly appreciated me bringing up this matter in the past, Ladybug, and I wouldn’t do so except that, well, the evidence does appear to be irrefutable at this point.”

She gestured to the screen behind her, where photos of Ladybug and Cat Noir began to cycle. Thanks to smartphones, the people of Paris always had cameras with them, and they were always eager to take photos of their favorite superheroes—especially when those heroes were holding hands, cuddling, or kissing. If Ladybug had thought they were being discreet about their relationship up to this point, she was mistaken.

The photo slideshow had Ladybug blushing and Cat Noir grinning. He took her hand and moved closer to her.

“All right, all right,” Ladybug said, waving at the screen. “Can you make that stop? Yes, Cat Noir and I are a couple now.”

Cat Noir wrapped an arm around her and loudly kissed her cheek. “She finally said it!” He looked into the camera. “You hear that, Paris? Ladybug and Cat Noir are a couple! My lady loves me!”

_My son is an idiot_ , Gabriel thought. _But then, who isn’t a fool for love? At least he’s wearing a mask._

“You heard it here first, folks,” Nadja said to the camera. “Ladybug and Cat Noir are a confirmed couple. Ladybug, is Cat Noir right? Does this mean you’re really in love with him?”

Ladybug’s annoyance and embarrassment softened, and she put a hand on Cat Noir’s cheek. “Yeah. I’ve been in love with this silly kitty for a long time. It just took me a while to figure it out.”

“That sounds like an interesting story,” said Nadja. “Care to share it? And how does the father of your baby fit into the picture now?”

Ladybug sighed and settled back comfortably against Cat Noir. “It’s . . . a long story. And one we can’t actually tell because it might give away too much about our identities. But the fact is . . . you were right, Nadja.”

Nadja blinked. “I was right? About what?”

“When you suggested that Cat Noir and I might have been caught together by Fairy Grandmother’s gas without knowing we were with each other.”

Nadja’s eyes lit up. “I was right? Then . . . ?”

Cat Noir nodded furiously. “Ladybug’s baby bug is also my kitten.”

Ladybug groaned.

Several people—including Nadja—let out cheers and started clapping.

Cat Noir stood on the couch and took a bow.

Gabriel scowled. _It’s fine. He’s wearing a mask_ , he reminded himself. His son kept giving him more and more reasons to protect Cat Noir’s identity with his life.

Ladybug grabbed Cat Noir’s belt and yanked him back down.

Once she got her excitement under control, Nadja said, “I’m sure I speak for all of Paris when I say: Congratulations, you two. And I’m glad that you didn’t decide to give up being our heroes because of your child.”

“We couldn’t do that, Nadja,” Ladybug said. “We love our baby, but if everyone gave up their duties because of their children, the world wouldn’t function. Our baby needs us, yes, but Paris needs us, too. So we’ll be here, ready to help when we’re needed. And when we get to the point when we can no longer be the heroes Paris needs us to be, we’ll pass our Miraculouses to a new generation of heroes, to protect your children, and their children after them. That’s our promise to you, Nadja, and to all of Paris. The superheroes of Paris are here for the long haul. Whenever there’s a need, you can count on us.”

A stunned silence filled the whole studio. Then the nervous AD standing beside Gabriel broke out in enthusiastic applause. Within moments, the room was filled with the sound multiplied a dozen times over. After listening to it for a few seconds, Gabriel added his own soft clapping.

His son was a hero; there was no denying that. His grandson would be a hero, too, when the time came; history would certainly repeat itself in that regard.

Maybe Adrien had become a hero despite Gabriel rather than because of him, but that didn’t stop Gabriel from being proud of him. But Adrien wasn’t fully grown yet, and Louis was still only an infant. Gabriel had time left to try to be a more positive influence on them both, if he could work out how to. He wasn’t sure a villain could help nurture heroes, though, so maybe it would be best to just stay out of their way.

Emilie would know what he should do, when she woke up. Until then, Gabriel would have to muddle through as best he could.

The applause died down, and Ladybug and Cat Noir made their exit, racing out of the room in grand superhero fashion. When Nadja tossed it to commercial, the A.D. gave Gabriel another worried look.

“He’ll be here,” Gabriel told him.

When a different AD started counting down from thirty, Adrien came through the stage door and ran up to Gabriel. “Sorry I’m late, Father!”

“It’s fine, son.” Gabriel put his hand on Adrien’s shoulder—and then, without meaning to, pulled his son into a firm hug. He let go after a second, while Adrien was still surprised. “You’ll do well. I’m certain of it.”

Adrien beamed at him. “Thanks, Father. Your support means a lot to me.”

As the AD hurried Adrien into place, Gabriel smiled. _Then I’ll give you as much as I can, though I’m not sure I know how to._

#

Marinette entered the studio a few seconds behind Adrien, in time to see his father hug him. Her heart filled with warmth at the sight. The aftermath of the Fairy Grandmother attack must have changed something in their relationship. It could have gone badly, but the changed definitely seemed to be for the better, and Marinette was so happy for them both.

When Adrien went up to the set to sit back down on the couch—his posture and demeanor now different enough that no one seemed aware he’d just been there—Marinette came up beside Gabriel. He was quite a tall man. “Mr. Agreste,” she said softly. From the jerky way he looked down at her, she must have surprised him. “Adrien told me about his mom.” She watched Gabriel’s eyes carefully for any sign that this was a forbidden topic, but all he gave her was a small, inquisitive quirk of his eyebrow, so she continued. “I think he doesn’t want to talk about it much because he’s already mourned her and he’s afraid he might have to do it again, so he’s afraid to hope. But I know she’ll wake up from that coma one day. I have faith.” Her faith wasn’t based on anything substantial, she knew that. It was mostly just the conviction that Adrien deserved to have his mom back in his life. But it was how she felt.

To her surprise, Gabriel smiled. “So do I, Marinette.”

For as long as she’d known Adrien, Gabriel had been a cold, hard figure. She remembered how the thought of being the kind of parent that Gabriel was had been disturbing enough to make Adrien break down in tears. But the softness and hope that she saw in Gabriel’s eyes now made her think that he’d turned a corner somewhere. And maybe it wouldn’t reverse time and give Adrien the kind of childhood he should have had, but it was never too late to become a better person. That was always worth striving for.

A loud voice from near a camera drew her attention forward. “And three, two . . . ”

A couple seconds later, Nadja Chamak smiled at the camera and said, “Welcome back, viewers, to _Face to Face_. Our next guest is fashion model Adrien Agreste.”

Adrien smiled and waved at the camera, a little self-consciously. Marinette watched for signs that anyone recognized him as Cat Noir, but she saw nothing. The Miraculous magic seemed to help prevent that, but surely they were testing the magic’s limits right now.

Nadja crossed her legs and turned her attention to Adrien. “It’s so good to see you again, Adrien. I’m sorry Ladybug and Cat Noir had to leave before you got here. I imagine you would have liked to congratulate them on their relationship, given how much you were rooting for the two of them the last time you were on.”

“That’s okay, Nadja. I understand. Superheroes are very busy people.” Adrien smiled into the camera. “But if Ladybug or Cat Noir is watching this, I can’t tell you how happy I am that the two of you finally got together. You’re absolutely made for each other, and I hope you two have a lifetime of happiness.”

Marinette melted a little on the inside.

“You’re certainly in a good mood,” Nadja noted. “Could that be because you’ve found your own perfect match?”

“That’s exactly what it is, Nadja. Anyone who’s been following my social media posts may have picked up on some changes to my life lately, but there’s one that’s too big to keep hidden anymore. I’m not sure we’ve been doing a very good job of trying to, anyway.”

“It sounds like you have an announcement, Adrien,” Nadja said.

“I do, Nadja. I’ve fallen in love with the most amazing girl I’ve ever met. She’s cute and talented and funny and brave and . . . well, I could go on for ages because she’s _that_ wonderful. She’s also my best friend and the mother of my baby, and when we’re a little older, she’s going to be my wife.” Adrien turned, found Marinette in the group behind the cameras, and held out his hand to her. “And she came here today so I could introduce her to everyone properly.”

Marinette’s nerves were suddenly overcharged and her stomach was full of butterflies. She hadn’t been nervous at all when she’d been on stage literal minutes ago as Ladybug, but this was so much different. What if she messed up and made Adrien look bad? What if she humiliated herself so badly she could never show her face in public again?

With legs like those of a newborn fawn, she made her way toward Adrien.

“I would introduce her to you, Nadja,” Adrien said, hand still out to Marinette, “but I know that you already know her. So I’ll introduce her to your viewers.”

Marinette stepped up to the stage, and she knew the cameras could see her now. She was on TV! She took Adrien’s hand and smiled awkwardly at Nadja. Except she hadn’t cleared all the steps, and the moment she took her eyes off where she was going, she tripped over the last step, stumbled, and with a loud cry, fell right on top of Adrien. Luckily, they landed on the couch, so no one got hurt.

Unless intense mortification was fatal, although if it were, Marinette would have already been dead by this point in her life.

Laughing, Adrien got them both to their feet and gently turned her toward the camera. “Everyone, I’d like you to meet my fiancée, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Nadja stood and greeted her with a hug. “Congratulations, Marinette. I’m so happy for you.”

“Th-thanks, Mrs. Chamak.”

Nadja laughed. “Please, Marinette, you can call me Nadja.” They all sat, and Nadja addressed the camera. “For the viewers who may be wondering, by pure coincidence, I’ve been friends with Marinette’s mother for several years.” She returned her attention to her guests. “Exactly how long have you been in love with Adrien, Marinette?”

“H-how long?” Marinette stammered. Why was she asking her this? Marinette hadn’t prepared for these kinds of questions! Okay, she hadn’t really prepared for any questions, since she’d been so focused on what she’d say as Ladybug that she hadn’t really prepared for _this_ interview. “Forever! I mean, not _forever_ , obviously, because I haven’t been alive forever. The Earth itself hasn’t been around forever. So it’s ridiculous to say I’ve loved him forever, isn’t it? And what is love, anyway—”

Adrien gently put his hand over her mouth and told Nadja, “She rambles when she gets nervous. Isn’t it adorable?”

She shot him a glare without trying to remove his hand.

“I have it on good authority that you’ve loved him for quite a while,” Nadja said with a gleam in her eye. “Before Fairy Grandmother threw the two of you together, at least. In fact, we found some footage that shows some pretty clear evidence of that.”

Nadja looked to the large screen on the back wall of the stage, which started showing video from the time when Jagged Stone had filmed a reality show at the bakery and somehow the film crew had ended up in Marinette’s room, flashing her many, many Adrien photos to all of Paris.

“Where did you get that?” Marinette demanded. Nadja ignored her. Marinette put her head in her hands. This was awful! Everyone would find out how stupid in love with Adrien she was!

Which . . . okay, that wasn’t really that bad. Because now that she knew Adrien loved her back, there wasn’t really any reason not to let everyone know. And Nadja was probably just trying to get ratings with a cute fluff story about a love-struck girl ending up with the fashion model of her dreams. So Marinette couldn’t really blame Nadja that much for ambushing her with all this.

But still!

With the video playing above them, Adrien put his arm around Marinette and pulled her close until his lips were next to her ear. “Welcome to my life,” he whispered. “Think you can handle it?”

She found his hand and held on tight. “With you beside me, Adrien, I can handle anything.”

Even the most nerve-wracking interview of her life.


	127. Chapter 127

“You’re absolutely made for each other,” Adrien said, his gorgeous green eyes gazing straight into Marinette’s soul, “and I hope you two have a lifetime of happiness.”

Marinette sighed, rewound the video on her phone, and played it again.

The response to their TV interview had been surprisingly good, accurately predicted by Marc when he texted her while she was on her way home from the studio: _You make a pretty adorable puppy dog yourself._

Marinette had been afraid that Adrien’s fans had only accepted her so long as she was his ‘very good friend’ and that they would turn on her—or even him—once he made it clear thatshe was more and he was thoroughly taken. But apparently she’d made a good enough impression that the overall response was positive. She’d even gained a staggeringly huge number of new Instagram followers within the hour. Mostly, she’d assumed, people hoping for cute family or couple pics. So she’d been surprised to find, in the following days, that her sketches or photos of clothing she’d designed—even when it was just laid out flat and not modeled—got as many likes as it did. There still hadn’t been enough time to convince her the fans were genuinely interested in her as a designer, but it was flattering anyway. Two famous designers who probably weren’t doing it solelybecause of her connection to Adrien had even started following her and liking some posts.

Even though Adrien had bragged on her design skills and even her baking quite a lot, the interview had certainly not been _all_ Adrien gushing over how amazing she was. There’d been plenty of questions she’d had to force herself not to literally run away from.

When Nadja had made a not-very-veiled inquiry about exactly how intimate Marinette and Adrien were getting now that they were engaged and living together, Marinette had blushed so hard, she thought her face might just melt off. But that had been one of the questions they’d been warned of and even approved (largely at Gabriel’s insistence) because the truthful answer was exactly what the public needed to know to maintain Adrien’s wholesome image. (Besides, he _was_ wholesome, and that was how she liked him.) And it was better to get one moment of embarrassment out of the way than suffer constantly repeating embarrassment every time someone left a suggestive comment or otherwise assumed something was going on that wasn’t.

Maybe the truth of that had helped win over his fans, too. His young fans still thought of him as a cute boy they could innocently fantasize about, and his older fans still saw him as the sunshine child they wished they could adopt. Sure, not everyone had believed them, but enough of his fans were on their side that any distasteful comments were quickly shouted down.

Marinette was glad to have the big announcement behind them, but she was still figuring out what being involved with a celebrity was going to be like. Not that it was a _daily_ concern. Mostly, it was something to keep in mind whenever Adrien had some big new release, like that time his perfume ad had come out and people chased him (and her) all around the city. But even when nothing appeared different in their lives, with all the social media followers, she was beginning to feel a little under a microscope. It was definitely something to get used to.

For now, Marinette was lying on her bed, soothing herself by watching Adrien’s third-person declaration of love over and over. The small screen of her phone didn’t do him justice, but her computer (like everyone else’s) was in the study room, so this was the best she could do at the moment.

“Girl, what are you doing?”

After sharing a room with her for weeks, Marinette didn’t jump at Alya’s entrance.

Floating above her head, Tikki giggled. “She’s watching the video of the interview again.”

Alya sat on the edge of Marinette’sbed, and Marinette leaned into her, not taking her eyes off the screen. “He’s so _dreamy,_ ” Marinette sighed.

“Well, Mr. Dreamy’s waiting for you downstairs.”

Marinette jerked up, shifting into a sitting position. “What?! Already?”

“We’ve only got fifteen minutes, girl. Not everyone’s so chill about being chronically late.” Alya herself was already fully dressed with her makeup and hair done.

Marinette yelped and jumped off the bed. She’d already done her makeup and her hair, at least. “Help me get my dress on!”

With Alya’s help, she got dressed. For this occasion, Marinette had decided to try designing a dress that had a hint of kimono inspiration in the design. Probably, she should have remembered that included a wrapped bit around her waist that had to be carefully tied in a specific way. By the time she got her shoes on, grabbed her purse, and made it downstairs with Alya, everyone else was standing in the living room, waiting for them.

Adrien met her at the bottom of the stairs with his hand out to her. “Marinette, you look beautiful. The dress is amazing.”

She felt her cheeks warm. “Thanks, Adrien. You look hot, too.” She blushed harder. “I mean handsome! You look . . . elegant and . . . regal . . . ”

Adrien laughed. So did everyone else.

“You’re overshooting, Mar,” Alix said.

Maybe. But only a little. The suit Adrien wore was a very deep purple—almost black—with a gold waistcoat that matched his hair. He could have definitely accessorized with a crown if he’d wanted to.

He ran over to Nathalie, who was dressed in her usual business suit, and handed her his phone. “Nathalie, take a group photo for me!”

“You know there’ll be a photographer there, right?” Nino asked as Adrien shoved the six of them together for the shot.

Adrien didn’t bother trying to justify himself. Marinette giggled as Adrien squeezed her between himself and Alya. He was like his own embarrassing parent on prom night. Although . . . maybe he had to be.

Marinette put her arm around his waist and pulled him in tight. Nathalie snapped a photo, and Adrien inspected it as the rest of them started walking out of the house.

Gabriel had arranged a limo for the group, which Marinette was not too proud to enjoy even though she knew it was probably just so no one who Gabriel knew would see his son piling out of a cramped sedan.

Once they were on the road, Alya and Alix thanked Marinette again for designing their dresses, and everyone said how pretty they were and how well they fit. Adrien complained about not getting to wear a Marinette design, but men’s suits weren’t something she was ready to tackle yet, so she told him she’d design a dress for him any time he wanted.

The cheeky little twerp just winked at her and asked, “Is that a promise?”

Nino rolled his eyes. “Models.”

Alya, Nino, Alix, and Nathaniel laughed, but from the way Adrien didn’t laugh with the others and just kept smirking at her, she knew he hadn’t been completely joking. Privately, Marinette thought that finding a way to make dresses for men a thing sounded like an interesting challenge. There was certainly enough historical precedent for it. Maybe she’d start by trying to make the two of them matching actual kimonos.

The limo stopped, and the door beside Adrien opened on its own. Or rather, as Marinette realized once she managed to get out without tripping over herself (thanks to Adrien’s help), it had been opened by a staff member in a black tailcoat and gloves.

Adrien tucked Marinette’s hand into his bent elbow and escorted her up a narrow, red carpet toward one of the most luxurious hotels in Paris. Marinette gawked at it, grateful that there were very few people nearby to snap photos.

“Tell me this isn’t the sort of place your dad will expect us to have our wedding,” she whispered to Adrien as they walked.

“Probably,” he said, “but we’ll have it wherever you want, Milady.”

“Wherever _we_ want, you mean.”

“As long as it ends with you marrying me, we could have it in the courtyard between classes for all I care.” He winked at her. “But the park by the bakery would be nice.”

“You mean the one with a statue of us?”

“Imagine the photo op!”

They went inside, into a lobby way more spacious and fancy than the hotel Chloe lived in. The lighting was subdued and elegant, the desks and floors were marble, and the seating was leather.

“Whoa,” Alya breathed behind them.

Marinette glanced back to make sure the whole group was still here, and the six of them followed the signs to the grand ballroom. The room was massive, with thirty-foot ceilings and six big crystal chandeliers. Roses were everywhere, one table had a pyramid formed from crystal glasses full of some kind of sparkling beverage, and another table for presents already bore an impressive load.

“I wonder how much all this cost,” Alix said a bit too loudly.

“I’m sure I don’t want to know,” Marinette said, cringing slightly. Not at Alix, of course; at the idea that someone would spend this much for a single event.

A tall figure hurried over to them. “Dudes, you’re here!” Kim was visibly straining under the effort of keeping his energy in check in such a classy place.

Alix snorted with laughter. “Kim, you look so weird in that suit.”

“I know!” he agreed. “That dress looks really good on you, though, Alix. Come on. We’re all sitting over here.” He led them down the outside aisle on the bride’s side, bypassing very put-out looking ushers, and they filed in beside the rest of their friends.

The rest of their _team_. Many of whom were seeing the bride and groom for the first time today.

They all managed to sit quietly and politely until the music started and everyone stood. The betuxed groom was already standing at the front before the official. When the bride began her march down the aisle, Marinette broke into a huge grin.

“She looks beautiful,” she whispered to Adrien.

“She does,” he agreed.

Her white, silk dress was perfectly tailored and must have cost a fortune, but it still wasn’t as lovely as the contentment on the bride’s face.

Marinette didn’t think she’d ever seen Kagami smile so genuinely before.

As Kagami passed, she noticed them. Marinette waved enthusiastically, and Kagami’s smile brightened even more.

“I’m so glad she’s happy about this,” Marinette whispered to Adrien after Kagami walked by.

“Me, too,” he agreed.

“I’m surprised they’re doing such a Western wedding.”

“Kagami insisted on having a ceremony before they left so her friends could come. They’ll do another when they get back to Japan. But even in Japan, it’s common to have Western-style weddings.”

The ceremony wasn’t long. A simple exchange of vows, a decisive (but respectable) kiss, and then everyone got up and moved to the back of the room where the refreshments were while staff members cleared the chairs away to make room on the dance floor.

Marinette, Adrien, and the rest of the team didn’t join the receiving line like the other guests. They mingled and snacked on the delicious refreshments while they waited.

Gabriel was there in an extremely expensive suit, and he gave Adrien a disapproving and confused frown from across the room when he saw that Adrien was avoiding the receiving line. Adrien tried to reassure him with a smile and nod, but neither he nor Marinette were very sure his father had received the message. Either way, Gabriel waited his turn to congratulate the new couple—and Kagami’s mother—without bothering Adrien.

Once only a couple people were left in line, Marinette took Adrien’s hand, nudged Alya to get her attention, and led the way to the bride and groom.

When she got there, she met Kagami with a warm hug. “Congratulations, Kagami.”

“Thank you, Marinette,” Kagami said. “I’m very glad you and Adrien could make it.”

“We wouldn’t have missed it for anything,” Adrien told her, leaning in for a hug.

Marinette turned to the groom. “Hi. I’m Marinette.” She held out her hand.

He took it, his smile just as genuine as Kagami’s. “I am Kyo. Nice to meet you, friend of Kagami.”

“Kyo has been studying French,” Kagami said. “He’s doing very well.”

Kagami’s mother was near enough that Adrien greeted her formally, then Kagami told her that this was the last of the guests.

Apparently, Mrs. Tsurugi had stopped relying on Kagami for help, because a Japanese woman in a businesslike suit helped her to a chair along the wall.

Kagami waved, and another, smaller Japanese woman came over with a bundle in her arms.

“I want you to meet our son, Shigure,” Kagami told them.

Marinette and several of the other girls gathered around and squealed softly at the adorable baby.

They had a pretty big group standing here, though, and there was something they needed to do before people started wandering off.

“Can we talk to you in private?” Marinette asked Kagami.

Kagami glanced at her new husband. “Only me?”

“Yes,” Adrien said with an apologetic nod to Kyo. “We won’t be long.”

Kagami began to step away with Marinette.

Kyo gave Adrien a half-genuine stern look. “Do not steal my wife, Agreste. I know about you.”

Adrien was genuinely confused. “Steal her? Why on earth would I steal her?”

Blushing slightly, Kagami went back and said something to Kyo softly in Japanese before kissing him and returning to Marinette. “Sorry,” she said, her face back to its usual emotionless expression. “Kyo can be a little jealous.” And then her mouth slowly curled in a tiny smile.

Adrien’s face had gone pink, but he didn’t come up with anything to say. He did, however, wrap his arm around Marinette a bit more possessively than usual as they walked away from Kyo. As if to say, _Don’t worry; I’ve got my own._

They found a private side room and all filed in. There was one camera in the corner, but Plagg flew out of Adrien’s pocket when Kagami wasn’t looking and phased into the device to mess with the wiring.

When they were standing in a semicircle in front of her (all eighteen of them), Kagami greeted the group with a bow. “Thank you for coming to my wedding. Any friends of Adrien and Marinette are friends of mine.”

“I’ll come to anything if there’s food like this,” Kim said. “Will there be cake?”

Ondine elbowed him pointedly. “Sorry about my husband,” she told Kagami. “They can be a lot of work to keep in line, but they’re worth it.”

“I understand,” Kagami said, straight-faced. “I will remember that.”

“We probably don’t have long before someone checks on that camera,” Marinette said, standing in front of her, “so I need to do this quickly. Kagami, we didn’t bring all our friends here just because they’re our friends. It’s because we’re a team, and they all wanted to be here to welcome our final member.”

Kagami did not show her confusion overtly, but Marinette could detect it in her eyes anyway. “What kind of team?” Kagami asked.

Marinette nodded to Adrien, and he took the last Miraculous box from his pocket and held it out for Kagami. At the same time, Tikki and Plagg showed themselves, and soon all the other kwamis did, too.

Kagami’s eyes widened. “Those are kwamis.”

“Yes,” Adrien said, still waiting patiently.

Gaze darting between Adrien and Marinette, Kagami said, “You are Ladybug and Cat Noir.” If she was freaking out on the inside, she was hiding it very well.

“Yes,” Marinette said. “Did you suspect us?”

“Not at all. I’m extremely shocked.”

“Are you . . . happy about it?” Marinette asked.

“Yes. I always knew you two were amazing people. I should have guessed you were heroes.” Her eyes flicked to the team behind them. “I’ve met many of you before. You are Marinette’s friends. That makes sense.”

Luka chuckled. Rose let out a tiny, happy squeal. Nino said, “You’re leaving my bro hanging, Kagami.”

She looked at the box Adrien was still holding out. With smooth, deliberate movements, she took it and opened it.

Longg came out in a ball of light and bowed to her. “Greetings, Kagami. It is a pleasure to see you again.”

Kagami touched the choker necklace inside the box, then pulled her fingers away. “You want me to be Ryuko again?”

“You’re the best choice,” Marinette said confidently.

After closing her eyes for a moment, Kagami shook her head. “But I’m leaving for Japan in three days. I won’t be coming back except to visit. And I have a husband and a baby now.”

Ondine said, “I have a husband and a baby, too.”

“Yeah,” said Alya, “most of us have babies. I’ve got a baby and a fiancé. So does Marinette.”

“What they’re saying,” said Alix, “is that those aren’t good reasons to refuse.”

“And we know you’re leaving for Japan,” Marinette said. “It’s okay. We still want you to have this Miraculous. Take it with you to Japan. We’re not planning on using ours very much—not like we used to. We’re a reserve team, here only if we’re needed. It might be a good idea to have one of us who’s not in Paris. We can coordinate if any threats are big enough that they might spread outside of Paris or even Europe.”

Adrien laid a hand on Kagami’s shoulder. “You’re the right choice for this one, Kagami. All you have to do is keep it safe and secret and be ready to use it if a superhuman threat comes along. And this means you’ll have to stay in touch with us.”

She looked up at him, searching his eyes. “You want me to stay in touch?”

He grinned. “I want to give you this Miraculous so that you’ll have to.”

“ _We_ want to,” Marinette clarified. “ _And_ because you’re a totally awesome hero, and if somehow some new supervillain pops out of nowhere and takes out all of the rest of us, I know you’re tough enough and smart enough to find a way to do something about it.”

Kagami looked at the Miraculous for several seconds, considering. Then she took it out of the box and put it on. “I am honored to join your team, Ladybug.”

A cheer went up, Marinette and Adrien led a pile-on group hug (and it was okay that not absolutely everyone joined; Chloe still had a long way to go before she was on ‘group hug’ terms with most of them), and they all went back to the reception.

#

The first dance was a waltz. When the lights lowered everywhere but the dance floor and Kagami and Kyo began to dance, Adrien stood with Marinette and the rest of his friends, watching in admiration. Kagami and her new husband looked good together, both moving with the precision and grace that comes from years of fencing. They’d clearly practiced this dance a fair bit, too, no doubt required to by her mother.

To his left, Rose breathed, “They’re so beautiful.”

Marc edged close to Adrien and asked nervously, “Is it all going to be ballroom dancing?”

“I don’t know,” Adrien answered. “It’s not as hard as it looks to get the basic steps, though.”

When the string quartet shifted smoothly into a different song, the lights went back to normal, and new couples joined the bride and groom on the floor. Adrien took that as a sign that it was okay for the rest of them to dance. He took Marinette’s hand and asked, “Care to dance, Milady?”

She’d gone stiff. “I don’t know to do that!” she whispered, panicked. “All I can do is sway back and forth.”

“It’s not that hard to do a simple box step,” he told her. “Just follow my lead. I know you can do that much.”

Before she could answer, another panicked whisper caught his attention. “Chloe! I don’t know this dance!”

“Stop being a pansy,” Chloe told Pierre as she tried to drag him onto the floor.

No one was helping either of them. In fact, most of their friends appeared nervous or uncertain as they watched the people waltzing on the dance floor.

It occurred to Adrien that maybe not everyone’s moms had taught them some basic ballroom dance skills when they were twelve.

He let go of Marinette’s hand and held his out to his oldest friend. “Chloe.”

She raised her eyebrows in surprise.

“Let’s show them.”

She understood immediately. Releasing Pierre, she took Adrien’s hand, and the two of them went to the dance floor while staying close to the group. They took the correct positions and moved with the beat into a basic box step. It was a simple step, but fun, and while he enjoyed it, he kept one eye on the group to see if any of them were paying attention to the steps.

Some of them were. Some of them still looked confused. To be fair, it wasn’t something that was easy to pick up from pure observation.

In a low voice, he asked Chloe, “Do you know how to lead?”

“Of course.”

“You’ll have to teach Pierre how to lead. Maybe the other guys, too. It’ll look weird, but not as weird as if I tried to teach them right now.”

She let out a small huff as they turned. “Why should I care if the rest of them get to dance?”

“Because they’re your friends, too. Right?”

The haughtiness of her expression cracked enough for him to see her vulnerability. “I guess.”

“I haven’t had a chance to tell you yet, Chloe, but I’m really proud of you. For standing up for your baby. For giving Pierre a chance. For making a real effort to be part of a team. I’m impressed with the person you’re choosing to be, and I think others are, too.”

Averting her eyes, Chloe actually blushed at the praise. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Chloe blush. “I should hope so. I’m very impressive.”

Luka and Juleka broke off from the group and began dancing with simple but smooth steps, their height and colorful hair making them look even more elegant. It was a toss-up whether they’d already known the steps or were both so observant that they figured it out from watching Adrien and Chloe, but they definitely had the gist of it.

Mylène and Ivan also moved onto the dance floor, compensating for their complete lack of knowledge about what they were doing by staying near the edge and taking only tiny steps so their mistakes were minimized.

With a nod to Chloe, Adrien stepped away from her, holding her hand until they got back to the group, when he reached for Marinette instead. “See? It’s not that hard.”

“But I’m clumsy.”

“Not when you dance. Come on.”

Finally, she took his hand, and he got her onto the floor. He faced her, keeping one of his hands clasped with hers and placing the other on her shoulder blade. Even though there was a lot of space between them still, her cheeks turned a little pink.

He walked her through the basic steps, and although she had a few missteps, she caught on very quickly, especially once she understood what he was doing with his hands to guide her where he wanted her.

Within minutes, she was beaming. “This is actually really fun!”

“I know, right?” He moved with her easily, the two of them in sync, and he wished he knew more types of steps. “Hey, want to take dance classes together?”

“Yes!” she agreed immediately.

He wanted to hold her and keep dancing all night, but most of their friends were still lingering on the sidelines, not knowing what to do and afraid to look stupid at such a fancy event. Kim and Ondine were the only other couple who’d braved the dance floor, and they mostly looked like Ondine was trying to keep Kim from going too crazy while they jerkily attempted to replicate the steps.

Adrien ducked his head closer to Marinette’s to tell her, “Rose looks like a puppy about to piddle itself with excitement.”

Marinette giggled. “You’d better go help her before she makes a mess.”

They danced close to Chloe and Pierre, and Adrien caught the other couple’s attention. “Ready to switch partners, Chloe?”

Chloe shrugged a shoulder and handled the switch more gracefully than her partner did, but in a few seconds, Pierre and Marinette were dancing together, both of them suddenly more clumsy than before but managing not to step on each other.

As soon as they moved a few steps closer to the edge of the dance floor, Adrien and Chloe broke apart, and Adrien offered his hand to Rose, who let out a stifled squeal of delight and bounced happily onto the dance floor with him.

The music flowed seamlessly from song to song, and Adrien and Chloe gradually got the whole group comfortable enough with the basic form of dance that they were all out on the dance floor. Some of the guys didn’t look especially thrilled with having to dance with Chloe, but they did it without actually grimacing, which was progress. Nathaniel’s expression looked like he was dancing with a wild animal that might turn on him at any moment—which was fair, after the bullying that she’d subjected him to in the past—but when she let him go, he nervously asked Alix to dance and looked much happier when she said yes. As the music went on, all of them switched partners several times, even the ones already in relationships with each other.

_Friends can cuddle, and friends can dance_ , Adrien thought happily as he spun around with Alya, adjusting direction sharply to avoid bumping into Max and Sabrina. _Having friends is the best._

Someone tapped his shoulder, and he looked over to see Kyo and Kagami beside them. Kyo was giving him a suspicious look, but Kagami asked, “Would you dance with me, Adrien?”

“Of course. Do you mind, Alya?”

“Nah.” They smoothly changed partners, and just before they danced away, Adrien heard Alya say, “So, Kyo, I’ve got some questions about your relationship with our girl.”

Adrien chuckled and moved into step with Kagami. He could feel the taut muscles of her back as they moved. She was much leaner and fitter than she looked on first glance. “You look beautiful today, Kagami,” he told her.

“Thank you, Adrien. You . . . look very handsome in your suit.” Her eyes darted away from him with an uncharacteristic uncertainty.

He frowned slightly in concern. As their bodies moved easily together, almost as in sync as he was with Marinette, he said softly, “Kagami, this is probably going to sound crazy, so I’m sorry if this is a weird question and even weirder timing, but . . . Marinette told me once that you were in love with me.”

Even though there wasn’t so much as a slight hitch in her steps, Adrien could feel her stiffen.

“Was . . . that ever true?” he asked.

Kagami met his eyes and said, “It was, Adrien.”

He sighed. “So that’s why Kyo’s giving me dirty looks. I’m really sorry, Kagami. I never noticed. I never noticed that Marinette was in love with me, either. Sorry for being so dense.”

“Don’t worry about, Adrien. What happened happened. We’re all moving forward now.”

He smiled. “Yeah. At least you’re in love with Kyo now, so . . . ”

Something in her expression made him trail off.

“You . . . _are_ in love with Kyo, aren’t you?”

“I will be,” she said firmly. “Soon. Once we’re . . . back in Japan.” _Away from you_ , she didn’t say, though Adrien thought he could hear it. “I’m very fond of him. He’s an excellent match. We’ll be happy together; I’m sure of it.”

Adrien felt an unpleasant twinge in his heart. “We will still be friends, though, right?”

Her eyes softened. “Yes. I want to stay friends. If you want that.”

“I do.”

“Then let’s stay friends. I think you and Kyo could be friends as well, though maybe not until after you marry Marinette.”

Adrien let out a small, relieved laugh. “I’ll be sure to send you guys an invitation.”

“I look forward to it. You and Marinette are right for each other, even if was frustrating to watch you together before you realized it.”

The girl in question strayed across Adrien’s line of sight. Marinette was dancing with Luka, both of them smiling as they talked.

And suddenly Adrien remembered the last time he’d seen Marinette and Luka dancing at a wedding. Adrien had misinterpreted everything so badly that day, and his actions had hurt her.

“Sorry, Kagami,” he murmured, not giving an answer to her frown of confusion. Instead, he danced them closer to the other couple and got Luka’s attention.

He didn’t need to say a word. Luka smiled softly at him and let go of Marinette, taking Kagami and whisking her away while Adrien pulled Marinette to himself.

Marinette looked around, confused at how quickly the trade-off had happened. “We were talking . . . ”

“Sorry, Milady,” Adrien said, holding her a little closer than this type of dance really called for. “All of a sudden, I just wanted you in my arms.”

That surprised her, and she smiled. “Oh, Kitty. You’re so needy.”

He pulled her in even closer, which made them stand out if anyone looked, but he didn’t care. “It’s your fault. You know they say you should never bring stray cats home with you. You can never get rid of them.”

She laughed. “You’re the one who invited yourself home with me.”

“Stray cats usually do.”

“Well, you’re not stray anymore.”

“No. Definitely not.” He slowed their dance long enough to kiss her softly on the mouth. “Thanks to you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter left. I'll have a bunch of notes after the end.
> 
> I've made a Facebook page, in case anyone wants to follow me there. I don't really use social media much, but I'll probably post announcements about my stories and such. That kind of thing. facebook.com/shawnacanon


	128. Chapter 128

The first anniversary of the Fairy Grandmother attack was, on the whole, like any other day. Any other _recent_ day, that was—because for Adrien, Marinette, and a solid majority of the citizens of Paris, life was so different from a year ago that they would have called it a wildly alternate universe.

Adrien woke with the sun, got up from his twin bed, and opened the curtains of the nearest window. As usual, Nathaniel and Nino were still sleeping soundly. Even though they all had to share a bathroom, it worked out fine because it turned out that Adrien was an early riser, Nino got up at what he called a ‘normal’ time, and Nathaniel always seemed to have trouble getting up in the morning (though having the rooster kwami looking after him helped ensure he was rarely actually late). So Adrien went into the bathroom, took a shower, and got ready for the day. By the time he got out of the bathroom and started looking for clothes to wear, Nino was up and taking his turn.

Adrien’s first stop after leaving the bedroom was the nursery. Very quietly, he opened the door and padded into the room. The babies were all still sleeping. Trixx was asleep in Keva’s crib, but Wayzz was awake and whispered a greeting to Adrien before phasing through the floor into the boys’ room (Wayzz had learned that if Adrien was out and about, it usually meant that Nino was awake). Orikko was awake, too, hovering over Daniel’s crib; he gave Adrien a wave. Fluff was curled up adorably in Aleron’s crib, pressed right against the baby’s arm. When Adrien reached Louis’s crib, he saw his son sleeping soundly with Plagg curled up and lightly snoring nearby.

“Good morning, Adrien,” said a very soft, very sweet voice near his head.

He smiled at Tikki and whispered, “Good morning, Tikki. Everyone have a good night?”

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” Tikki reported.

As it turned out, having a bunch of kwamis around was really handy when you also had a bunch of infants. While it was technically Geneviève’s job to handle anything the babies might need during the night and they did have baby monitors set up, Geneviève wasn’t needed nearly as much as she would have been if not for the kwamis. And since the kwamis couldn’t be seen or heard on the baby monitors, Geneviève never knew why a crying baby would suddenly settle down without her having to go in and deal with them. She just thought they all had unusually well-behaved babies.

And Adrien felt better about having his tiny, helpless son watched over by Tikki and Plagg. It wasn’t exactly part of the official duties of kwamis, but they’d all taken on the task without even being asked. Tikki and Wayzz even took turns sleeping with Sebastien, since he didn’t have a parental kwami of his own to look after him.

Not wanting to wake Louis yet, Adrien crept back out of the room and headed down to the kitchen.

Nathalie was sitting at the dining table, drinking her coffee. Adrien didn’t know when she got up, but he’d never come down in the morning and not found her already up. “Good morning, Adrien,” she said as he walked past the dining area into the kitchen.

“Good morning, Nathalie. Babies are doing well.”

She gave him a small grunt of acknowledgment. Adrien didn’t think that Nathalie ever checked on Sebastien herself during the night, probably trusting her mother to handle things, but she usually went up to him at least once before heading to work.

Adrien checked the schedule posted on the front of the fridge. It was Alix’s turn to make breakfast, which probably meant eggs. Alix was pretty new to cooking, so she was trying to stick to what she was good at. Right now, she was good at scrambled eggs and that was about it.

“I’m gonna pop over to the bakery,” Adrien told Nathalie on his way out.

It was a short jog to Tom and Sabine’s bakery, and the weather was nice enough for it to be a pleasant trip. The bakery was already pretty busy when he got there. As soon as Adrien entered, the scent of fresh bread made his mouth water.

“Adrien!” Sabine called out from behind the counter. “Good morning!”

The customers turned to look at him, but he wove around them as politely as he could to reach the counter and tried not to interrupt the transaction Sabine was ringing up. “Good morning, Sabine! Good morning, Tom!”

Tom lifted one hand from where he was kneading dough on the table in the space between the counter and the oven (how they managed to run a successful bakery with such limited space was a mystery Adrien would never figure out). “Morning, Adrien! Here for some pastries?”

“Yep! If that’s okay.”

“Of course!” Tom said before returning to his kneading. “You know where everything is.”

Adrien slipped into the space behind the counter to get a bag, pausing at the high chair that was set up in one corner. Renée looked sleepy, but she also seemed to be paying attention to everything her parents were doing. “Good morning, Renée,” Adrien said, giving Marinette’s sister a light kiss on the head.

When he returned home with a bag full of goodies, Adrien found Nino in the kitchen getting coffee, so Adrien said good morning to him and sat at the table with Nathalie. “Anything on my schedule for today?”

#

Marinette’s alarm pulled her out of nightmare where she was fighting a supervillain called Boobsplosion (it was exactly what it sounded like). She groaned as she sat up, grateful to be in her own bed but irritated to find that the painful pressure in her breasts had not abated. Although at least now that she was awake, she could do something about it.

“Good morning, Marinette,” Tikki said, far too chipper.

“Ugh,” Marinette grunted. She’d managed to crack her eyes open to see sunlight filling the room. When she looked down, she found wet spots on her shirt. “I am gonna be so glad when we can get Louis weaned.”

Tikki’s smile dropped into a frown of concern. “Are you feeling okay, Marinette?”

“Yeah. Fine.” Marinette dragged herself to her feet. “My boobs are just sore this morning. Give me an hour or so.”

“You have an hour and five minutes before school,” Tikki informed her.

“Yeah, that should work,” Marinette said as she trudged to the bathroom. She could only spare time to pee, wash her hands, and splash water on her face to wake her up enough that she didn’t fall down the stairs on her way to the nursery.

Alix, Alya, and Geneviève were already in there, Alix and Alya feeding their babies while Geneviève changed Sebastien’s diaper. Louis was fussy, so Marinette scooped him up and sat down with him, pulling the tank top she’d been sleeping in up to her armpits. Nursing was still uncomfortable for her, so she still usually pumped, but she’d gotten just comfortable enough with it that if forced to choose between the emotional discomfort of nursing and the physical discomfort of breasts that were too full of milk, she usually opted to nurse. Louis latched on, and Marinette tried to make conversation with Alya to take her mind off of it.

The door burst open, and Nathaniel ran in. “Marinette!”

Nathaniel was a bit of a mess. His flannel pajamas were all rumpled, he had super bed head, and he kept blinking like he was having trouble making his eyes focus.

As far as Marinette was concerned, that last one—the eyes focusing part—was a good thing because he was looking straight at her, and she pretty much had her top off. She couldn’t exactly tug it down because it was form-fitting and she didn’t want to smother Louis, so she just froze up and felt herself blushing all the way down to her right-out-there-in-the-open breasts.

She held her breath and waited for Nathaniel to cover his eyes and apologize like Adrien and Nino had done before, but he didn’t. He just held up his phone. “Marc wants to know if you’ll look at his story for the new comic.”

Marinette’s jaw dropped. “ _That’s_ what you burst in here for?”

Nathaniel blinked dazedly a few times, then rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms and groaned. “Oh, sheesh. What am I doing? His text woke me up, and I was in the middle of this crazy dream . . . ” He dropped his hands to his sides. “Sorry to startle you.” He noticed Louis. “Oh, you can nurse him? That’s great! Are you not still having problems—”

“Nathaniel!” Marinette hissed.

“Huh?”

“Leave!”

Nathaniel actually looked a little hurt, totally confused about why she was kicking him out, but he left and shut the door.

Alix snickered. “Poor Nath. That was harsh.”

“What? No, I wasn’t!” Marinette said defensively. “Don’t tell me he really didn’t notice!”

“Honestly,” said Alix, “between all those weeks with me in the hospital and the sleep he lost taking care of the twins mostly by himself, I think Nathaniel’s gone boob-blind. I actually caught him calling them ‘baby-feeders’ once.”

Geneviève, who was mostly staying out of their conversation, chuckled and muttered something like, “Bless his heart.”

Alya laughed. “Aw, you broke him, Alix.”

“Nah. He’s tougher than he looks.”

“And if it turns out he’s not,” Alya said with a suggestive smirk, “you can always help put him back together.”

Alix clearly picked up on Alya’s strange delivery but didn’t understand what she was getting at. “Well, sure. He’s my friend.”

Alya rolled her eyes and met Marinette’s in a commiserating look.

_Oh, so this is what it’s like to be on the other side_ , Marinette thought. Her embarrassment about Nathaniel seeing her faded as amusement made her return Alya’s grin. How long would it take Alix and Nathaniel to get past the ‘just a friend’ stage? Surely not as long as it had taken Marinette and Adrien, considering the making out they’d been doing during Alix’s pregnancy. But time would tell, and they had plenty of time.

#

Adrien stayed downstairs with Nino until it was about the time that the girls were usually done feeding the babies, then they headed upstairs. They stopped in their room to see if Nathaniel had gotten up and ready yet, and the three of them went up to the nursery. The sign was flipped to _Safe_ , so they went straight in.

“Morning, Geneviève,” Adrien said as he headed for Louis’s crib.

The nanny smiled but didn’t get up from where she was sitting, feeding Sebastien from a bottle. “Good morning, boys.”

When Adrien peeked into Louis’s crib, his son looked up at him with wide, green eyes, and Adrien felt a little starburst of happiness in his chest. “Morning, Little Bun,” Adrien cooed, gently picking Louis up to hold him in his arms. He was three months old, and Adrien was amazed how fast he was growing. Now Adrien had a little more sympathy for distant relatives who said things like, “You’ve gotten so tall!” every single time they saw him. He lightly nuzzled his nose against Louis’s. “How’s my boy? Did Mommy feed you?”

Louis smiled and made a happy sound, which Adrien took as a _yes_.

Adrien held his son close and gently bounced him. Part of him never wanted Louis to outgrow the adorable baby stage, but most of him was eager for all the stages that would come later. For when he got old enough that Adrien could help him learn to read. For when he got old enough to have actual conversations with. For when got old enough that they could play games and run around in the park together. For when he got old enough to have serious thoughts and opinions of his own. For when he got old enough to dream about his own future and share those dreams with Adrien.

One day, Louis would be a man. It was hard to imagine what that even meant. Adrien wasn’t really even a man himself yet. A year ago, he would have had a hard time fully understanding what it meant to be a man, but he had a much better idea now. One day, Louis would be a man, too, with his own life and goals and family. It was extremely weird, but Adrien both couldn’t wait to see that day and dreaded its approach. For now, he was just enjoying every day—every minute—that he had with his son.

After a little while, the door opened, and Nathalie came in. “Breakfast is ready downstairs,” she said, moving toward Sebastien’s crib.

“Thanks, Nathalie,” Adrien said. He set Louis down, and the three guys headed downstairs. Nathalie stayed behind to feed Sebastien.

Breakfast was laid out on the table, and the girls were already seated when they got there. Adrien pulled out a chair to sit beside Marinette. He kissed her cheek. “Morning, Marinette.”

She gave him a cute little blushing smile and kissed his cheek back. “Morning, Adrien.” He loved how she could be cute and shy one minute and then bold and cheeky the next. And he really loved how he could make her switch from one mood to the other just by changing up his own behavior.

He grinned. “I see Alix has made us another _egg_ stravagant breakfast. _Ova_ been looking for an opportunity to practice my egg _yolks_.”

Marinette rolled her eyes and shoved Adrien sideways. She would have pushed him clean off his chair, but Nino had sat down beside him.

“Dude!” Nino protested, but like a good bro, he caught Adrien and propped him back up.

Adrien giggled—because if no one else was going to laugh at his wit, he’d just have to do it himself—and made the mistake of meeting Marinette’s eyes. She was smiling in that loving, indulgent way she did when she thought he was being corny, her eyes lit with Ladybug sparks, and Adrien couldn’t stop himself. He took her face in his hands and planted a kiss right on her mouth.

“Not at the table, guys,” Nathaniel groaned softly.

For about half a second, Adrien smiled against Marinette’s lips, then he broke away and started serving himself food, pretending he hadn’t done anything at all. From the corner of his eye, he saw her fidgeting as she tried to collect herself.

He loved that girl so much, sometimes he could hardly stand it.

“Today’s the big day, right, Alya?” he said right before biting into a croissant. The flaky, buttery goodness nearly distracted him from her response.

Alya hurriedly swallowed her bite of food. “Yeah! I’m so excited! My first article ever in a magazine, and it’s the cover story in one of the biggest magazines in France!”

“You’re the best, babe,” said Nino. “No climbing the ladder for _my_ lady. You’re starting right at the top.”

Alya laughed. “Hardly. And I don’t really want to go into magazines full-time, anyway. Independent blogs are the future. Still, it’s really getting my name out there. And the magazine has said that if this one does well, they’ll approve my idea for a series. I’m hoping it’ll keep traffic coming to the Ladyblog even without as much super-stuff to report on, and then when I start a new blog, maybe some of the same readers will follow me.”

“Personally,” said Alix, “I’m more stoked to see the pictures. No offense, Alya.”

“None taken,” Alya assured her. “I can’t wait to see them, too. Right, Marinette?”

“Absolutely!” Marinette agreed. “Uh, but I’m excited to see your article too, Alya.”

Nino and Nathaniel suddenly got very intent on their plates as their cheeks turned slightly pink. “I can’t believe you guys talked us into that,” Nino muttered.

Alya grinned unapologetically. “What are teammates for?”

“That is not what I signed up for when I became a superhero,” Nino countered, but Adrien could tell he wasn’t really angry or annoyed, only embarrassed.

Nathaniel raised his head enough to say softly, “It was actually kinda fun.”

“You guys did great,” Adrien assured them. “Everyone did.”

“Next time, I’ll sign you up to DJ, and it’ll be for some huge party in a warehouse with hundreds of people,” Nino threatened.

“I see your point,” Adrien said, “but at least it wasn’t live, like DJing is. There were some people there, sure, but everything got thoroughly picked through and edited before it went wide.”

That reassured Nino somewhat, and he went back to eating. Even with all the chatting, they managed to finish breakfast, get their things, and get the babies all packed and ready by the time they had to leave for school.

#

Marinette offered to take Keva so Nino could go with Alya to a newsstand to see if the magazine was out yet. She, Adrien, Nathaniel, and Alix walked to school with babies strapped to them like marsupials, and Marinette loved every second of it. Babies were so cute! Not just her own, either. Of course Louis was the cutest, but she loved all of her friends’ kids and her little sister and Adrien’s little brother, too. She couldn’t wait to play dress-up with them and take them out for ice cream and teach them how to be awesome at video games. She would probably start Louis on something simple, maybe an easy puzzle game. Not one of those microtransaction-laden mobile games, though. She didn’t want him to develop a gambling addiction before he was even old enough to know what money was.

_W_ _hat about Pong?_ she thought. _Pong’s simple._ But, no, that was no good. She’d tried those old Atari games before, and even though they had simple mechanics and bare-bones graphics, they were actually brutally difficult. _I need to ask Max to find some video games designed for really young—_ “Whoa!”

Adrien caught her by the arm as she tripped on the first step in front of the school. “Careful, Marinette. I can’t defend you from Alya if you squash Keva.”

Marinette hyperventilated for a few seconds, checking that Keva was fine and internally panicking about how badly that could have gone. “Thanks, Adrien.”

“You were kinda spaced out,” he said, sliding his hand down her arm to take her hand as they went up the stairs.

“Yeah. Sorry. Just thinking about what Louis’s first video game should be.”

Adrien nodded, taking her completely seriously. “ _Street Fighter Two_. It’s a classic.”

“There’s no way he’ll be able to play that. Fighting games are way too complicated.” Even though they were her favorite game genre, they weren’t what she thought of as games for small children.

“Sure. But there’s lots of colors and fun sounds, and it gets the adrenaline going.” They reached the top of the steps and entered the school courtyard. “It was the first game I actually remember playing. I don’t even remember where I played it, but know I loved it, even if I had no idea what I was doing.”

Marinette still thought it sounded a little advanced, and she planned to get a controller into Louis’s hands as soon as he could hold one. “Tell you what: We’ll offer him whatever games we think he might like and let him decide.”

“Deal.” Adrien opened the door to the daycare for her, and they got Louis and Keva checked in and settled.

As she took Keva out of the baby sling, Marinette noticed that Tikki had wedged herself snugly between the two of them. Marinette winked at her kwami and opened her purse for Tikki to zip into it. For some reason, Tikki seemed to love Keva as much as she did Louis, which Marinette was totally okay with.

“Oh. Good morning, everyone,” said a voice from the doorway.

Marinette looked over her shoulder to find Miss Bustier and her baby. “Good morning!” She finished getting Keva settled in a crib and moved closer to Miss Bustier. “How are you and little Destin?”

“We’re doing very well, Marinette, thank you,” said Miss Bustier. She was having trouble with a strap on her baby sling, so Marinette helped her with it. “How are you and Louis?”

“Good!” Marinette lowered her voice so she wasn’t speaking to the whole room. “Nursing’s still uncomfortable, but I’m getting better at it.” She’d told Miss Bustier about her nursing problem a couple weeks before, when they’d been alone in the daycare (aside from the daycare workers) in the hopes that the older woman had some tips. She hadn’t had any, but that was okay.

“That’s good,” said Miss Bustier, “but there’s no need to push yourself. Maybe you’ll be more comfortable with it by the next one.”

Heat flooded into Marinette’s face. “Yeah, b-but not for a long time. Like, a _long_ time.”

Miss Bustier chuckled. “Naturally. In the mean time, Louis’s taking any harm from it. It’s normal to have all kinds of issues or problems when you’re a first-time parent. I’m still trying to figure out how to get Destin to sleep through the night better. He gets so fussy even when he’s perfectly healthy and doesn’t need anything.”

Marinette went to Louis’s diaper bag, pulled out one of his starfish-style jumpers, and showed it to Miss Bustier. It was basically a bag with a head hole and corners for Louis’s arms and legs to go in. “We usually have him sleep in one of these. It’s not as restrictive as swaddling but makes him feel more secure than a normal jumper.”

Miss Bustier beamed. “What a neat idea! I’ll try to find some.”

Marinette told her the brand and where she’d bought it, and they kept chatting while Miss Bustier got Destin settled in.

The daycare room was some kind of twilight zone. Outside, Miss Bustier was the teacher and Marinette was the student. But in here, they were both new mothers—equals, in a way. It was . . . cool but weird.

Marinette walked with Adrien to class and took their usual seats. Marinette and Nino had tried to swap seats permanently, but apparently sitting next to one’s fiancé was even more distracting than sitting next to one’s best friend, so Miss Bustier had made them go back to the seating arrangement they’d had since Adrien’s first day at school.

Alya and Nino weren’t here at the moment, though, so Marinette talked with Mylène and Alix as they waited for class to start.

Two minutes before the first bell would ring, Alya burst into the room, huffing and puffing like she had just run a mile to get here. “It’s out!” she declared, holding up a stack of magazines.

Nino stumbled in right behind her. “We’re not late, are we?”

“You just made it,” Miss Bustier told them.

Alya ignored the teacher and started handing everyone their own copy of the magazine. “Feast your eyes on this, my friends!”

Marinette really didn’t need to be told to do that, because when she looked at the cover of the magazine, she saw Adrien—heart-stoppingly attractive as he held Louis, the two of them so adorable she almost died from cuteness overload. A happy sigh slipped out of her before she was even aware of it.

Adrien turned in his seat to grin knowingly at her. She blushed and tried to take a slightly more objective look at the magazine.

Adrien and Louis weren’t the only ones on the cover. Marc and Coccinelle were there, too. If an angel could somehow have a baby, that was what they looked like. An angel and a baby angle, with their big eyes and long lashes, looking just lost enough that they revved up all of Marinette’s protective instincts.

From somewhere behind her, Rose squealed, “Marc and Coccinelle are so cute!” This was met with several murmurs of agreement from the other girls.

Alix whistled, impressed. “Dude, Adrien, your DILF game is _on_ _point_.”

“Um, thanks?” he replied, clearly with no idea what she was talking about.

Alya nudged Marinette. “You’d better stick close to your man, or some other girl might try to steal him.”

Marinette frowned at the photo. This was definitely going to get the guys some attention for a while. They’d all need to make sure fans didn’t bother them too much.

“She’s not the only one,” Mylène said, already flipping through the magazine.

Before opening up her copy, Marinette took one last look at the cover and read the title of the cover story: _The New Face of Teen Fatherhood_.

When she flipped ahead to the article, she found a full ten pages of text and photos, including a centerfold group shot that she was definitely extracting to add to her collection. Or, better yet, asking Adrien to get a good copy from the magazine. The group shot featured, in addition to the four on the cover: Nino, Nathaniel, Kim, and Pierre with their babies. They were all dressed in stylish, coordinating outfits that played well against the minimalist backdrop, and all of them were carefully posed together in a way that looked natural yet aesthetically precise. And somehow, every single one of the boys looked totally comfortable with the camera—though maybe that was because they all had their attention on their babies.

“What a great shot,” Marinette breathed.

Adrien turned around in his seat. “Yeah, it really came out well. The photographer had a hard time getting everyone comfortable enough so they didn’t look weird, but as soon as she started having them pay attention to their babies instead of the camera, she started getting good shots.”

“Wasn’t it hard to get the babies to behave that long?”

He nodded. “Like you wouldn’t believe. The photographer had to be quick with her trigger finger.” He laughed. “That was a fun day.”

There were a lot more photos—in fact, the article was more photos than text, even though there was plenty of text—of the boys and babies in different groupings, somehow managing to capture the quintessence of their personalities. There were also small profiles on all of them, helping to add an even more personal touch.

Marinette had to smirk at that. The public had been clamoring for more details on their superheroes, even though she and the rest of the heroes had told them time and again that they couldn’t release anything personal for safety reasons. Now, a bunch of them were getting full, personal write-ups in a major magazine, giving the people exactly what they’d been asking for, and but no one had any idea these were their heroes.

Marinette tuned out the scattered comments that her friends made and focused on Alya’s writing. It was a good story, rousing, analytical, and heartfelt. It started with more of Adrien’s story, then the other guys, before taking a broader look and touching on several aspects of the topic. It talked about how teen fatherhood was usually associated with irresponsible behavior and girls left alone to deal with a baby that it had taken the choices of two people to create. It pointed out that for this one moment in time, this micro-generation of teens, things were very different.

On the second to last page of the article, there was a part that pretty much summarized Alya’s entire thesis.

_If you’re like me,_ _the last couple of years have made you think_ _you_ _know_ _what a_ _super_ _hero_ _is_ _. A superhero_ _has_ _superpowers, dresse_ _s_ _in_ _a_ _flashy costume, and punche_ _s_ _supervillains in the face. But I’ve learned that there’s another_ _way to define_ _‘superhero’. A superhero is someone who has the chance to avoid unasked-for responsibility and instead grabs it with both hands. A superhero doesn’t use the fact that he’s a victim as an excuse to leave his fellow victims with all the fallout of what was done to them. A superhero sees that he would be entirely justified in abandoning those who need him, and instead_ _he_ _gives everything he has to stay by their side._

_T_ _he boys_ _featured_ _in this_ _story_ _—and all those like them—are superheroes._

Even as tears of pride gathered in Marinette’s eyes, she had to laugh. She could tell when others got to the same part, as there were staggered laughs and other wordless reactions, until Kim loudly said, “Haha! That’s true in _two_ ways!”

Alya pointed to the section on Marinette’s copy. “I didn’t go too far, did I? Too on the nose?”

Marinette shook her head. “You were totally clear about what you meant. And totally right. There’s no reason for anyone to look into other meanings.” _Except maybe Hawk Moth_ , she thought. But she didn’t want to think about the former Hawk Moth unless she had to, and he hadn’t given her any reason to yet.

She finished the article and skimmed quickly through the rest of the magazine, not wanting to miss any tidbits that might have been hidden on other pages.

There was no retrospective on the Fairy Grandmother attack. No photos or memorials or anything like that. Everyone knew what day it was. Dredging it all up again wouldn’t do anyone any good. Even though for a lot of people, once everything had settled out, it had turned out to be a net positive, that day and the days following had been intensely traumatic. It was part of the reason Alya had come up with the idea for the story. The typical media thing would have been to rehash all the trauma they’d all gone through, bringing it all back to the forefront in the name of clicks and sales. But Alya believed—and all of the team agreed—that positivity really could interest people as much as negativity. So they’d all been thrilled when she’d convinced the magazine to go with her story.

If it did well, Alya had a whole series lined up and ready to start interviews. The next one would be about the teen moms like Alya herself. Then about older parents who already had grown or almost-grown kids and what it was like for them to have a new baby. Then about people like Marinette and Sabine or Adrien and Gabriel, where parent and child had both ended up with babies from the attack and how it affected their relationship with each other. Then people like Mireille, who’d been overwhelmed and chosen to give up their children, and the people and charities dedicated to helping babies who didn’t have any parent who wanted to claim them. Then the pediatricians and child care workers and their perspectives on how their jobs had changed because of the baby boom. And on and on. Alya had enough ideas for a full year’s worth of articles, if the public and the magazine stayed interested, and all of them would take a sympathetic, supportive approach to their subjects.

Miss Bustier carefully set her copy of the magazine on her desk,wiped a tear from her eye, and said, “I’m so proud of all of you.”

There was a moment of silence as they all absorbed that, some of them puffing up a little with visible pleasure at her praise.

“I’m just glad Adrien agreed to do it,” Alya said. “He was the linchpin and the only reason the story sold, him being the public face and all. This literally wouldn’t have happened without him.”

Adrien chuckled. “You’d already sold the story on the promise that you could get me. I could hardly say no at that point. Not that I would have. And it wouldn’t have been a very interesting photo spread without the rest of you guys.”

That encouraged a round of cheering for the rest of the guys, who all looked embarrassed but also pleased.

“So . . . ” Alya leaned one arm on the desk and the other on the back of her seat so she could address the whole class, “can I count on you girls to be with me when we do the mom story next?”

Marinette’s eyes widened at the thought, and Alix made an uncertain sound.

Chloe flipped her hair. “Of course. You’ll need a cover model, after all.”

Alya shared a private eye-roll with Marinette. “We’ll see. I have a feeling the people will want to see the future Mrs. Agreste on the cover. She _has_ been getting popular.”

“What?!” Marinette squeaked. “Me? On a cover? No way!”

“I think it’s a great idea!” said Adrien. Because of course he would. She shot him a glare, which only made him smile wider.

Noise filled the room as everyone expressed their opinions on who should be in the next story and who should be on the cover, until Miss Bustier clapped her hands and finally got class started.

#

When they got their first break between classes, Adrien filed out with his friends, and his ears perked at the sound of female voices all chattering excitedly. He looked over the railing in the courtyard to find an odd sight.

Marc was hiding behind Pierre, who was hiding behind Luka, who was standing there with a placid expression, providing a buffer between the two boys and the mob of girls trying to get their autographs.

Pierre looked up toward Adrien’s class and shouted, “Chloe! Help me!”

Marc’s face snapped toward them as well. “Marinette! Help me!”

Grinning, Adrien turned to Marinette to share his amusement, only to find her looking so determined, he was afraid she might vault straight over the side of the walkway to go to Marc’s rescue. Adrien put a hand on her shoulder. “I’ve got this.”

Adrien strolled down the stairs, and even though Nino hesitated a second, he followed his best friend. When they got to the courtyard floor, the group of girls noticed them and switched targets.

The girls held out copies of the magazine, getting slightly into Adrien’s personal space, but not too badly. “Adrien! Sign my magazine!” one of them shouted.

“Hello, everyone,” he said with a smile. “Sure, here ya go.” He took a pen from his bag and signed every magazine shoved in front of him.

Nino stayed nearby, and at least half the girls shoved their magazines at him, too. “What do I do?!” he panic-whispered to Adrien.

“Take out a pen and sign them,” Adrien answered from the side of his mouth.

Nino managed to do so, though he dropped his pen a couple times in the attempt.

“What’s all this?” Kim asked, joining them. A few girls shoved their magazines at him, which startled him, but he figured it out and got to signing, joking around as he did so.

Adrien made polite conversation with the group, giving the girls time to go over to Marc and Pierre in smaller, less frightening numbers. The more timid boys got the idea and gave the fans what they wanted. Nathaniel had joined them over there, too, and did his share of signing. Max had joined Luka to play bodyguard and make sure the girls didn’t get too pushy.

It only took a few minutes for the guys to stop getting magazines shoved at them. When some of the girls had gone and the rest were just trying to talk to them, Marinette and Alya came over. But it was Chloe who shouted, “All right, fangirls! Move along! Stop scaring Pierre! He’s mine!”

Most of the girls scattered immediately. A few hesitated, but when Chloe gave them a solid glare, they went on their way.

Chloe _humph_ ed in satisfaction. Pierre raced over to her and grabbed her hand. “Chloe! Thank god you’re here!”

“Honestly. I leave you alone for one hour.”

Adrien took Marinette’s hand. “Hopefully that’s all of them at school. Maybe we should stay off the streets for a while, though.”

“That’s never happened before!” Marc cried.

“It’s your first cover,” Adrien explained. “You get used to it.”

Marc didn’t seem to like the idea of getting used to it, but he rubbed his hands nervously and came closer. “I’m afraid to go home after school now,” he muttered.

“You can always take the high road,” Marinette suggested. She had to be careful, since there were still people around.

Marc’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

“I think,” she said, considering it as she spoke, “that today might be a good day to remind everyone that we’re here. All of us. Not at the same time, though.”

Marc beamed in excitement, then ran over to tell Nathaniel, Max, and Luka the good news.

“That sounds like a great idea, Milady,” Adrien told Marinette. It had been a week since he’d transformed. They were trying to cut down on it, but it was hard.

She bumped his side. “You just think that because it’s what you already want.”

“Maybe,” he conceded. If he had his way, they would all transform whenever they wanted. But he understood her reasons for wanting them to only do it occasionally, so he was doing his best to support that plan.

The rest of the day went along as usual: classes, checking in on the babies, chatting with friends. Max, Kim, and Alix were missing at lunch time, so Adrien wasn’t surprised when people started posting sightings of Pegasus, King Monkey, and Bunnyx on the Ladyblog. It was cool to see how excited the public got when they spotted the heroes out and about, especially in groups. The trio even stopped to pose for photos with people and generally raise spirits.

Though it did mean that they missed lunch. Kim and Max ended up having to scarf down some chips when they got back, but Alix played the mom card, claiming that she’d had to spend the whole time nursing Aleron (when in reality Nathaniel had bottle-fed him while he ate lunch with Adrien and some of their other friends at Marinette’s parents’ house), so Miss Bustier let her eat her own lunch while she nursed Daniel during History class. Which probably would have been a weird thing under most circumstances, but no one batted an eye.

After school, while they were getting the babies, Alix asked Nino to carry one of the twins for her because, “Nathaniel’s hanging out with Marc for a bit.”

Adrien wasn’t at all surprised to see Juleka carrying Coccinelle as she walked home with Luka.

Nor was he surprised, as his group was walking home, to see two shadows pass overhead and the people around him on the street erupt into excited shouts.

Adrien looked up to see Monarc and Cockerel flying through the sky, doing loops and twirls, laughing and waving at the people taking pictures of them.

As Monarc hovered for a moment, waving at the people shouting at him, one girl yelled, “Marry me, Monarc!” which made him blush and scratch the back of his head, then dart away. The girl and her friends laughed with delight.

“And he thought going home that way would get him away from fangirls,” Adrien said quietly to Marinette.

She smiled. “At least he’s out of their reach.”

#

Half an hour later, Ladybug and Cat Noir were leaping across rooftops, stopping to ask passersby if anyone had seen Andre’s ice cream cart. They didn’t really need to do that, but the people were always so cheerful and happy to see them, some of them even asking for photos, that Ladybug was glad she’d gone along with Cat Noir’s suggestion. It was good to see Parisians happy, today of all days.

They finally caught up with Andre near the Arc de Triomphe. They got a single ice cream to share and strolled hand-in-hand down the Champs-Élysées while they ate. People actually gave them a lot of space, smiling or waving or taking pictures but mostly not bothering them.

“You sure we can’t do this all the time, Milady?” Cat Noir asked her. “It seems to make people happy.”

“It makes them happy because it’s a treat,” she said. “If we did it all the time, we’d start being those weird people who walk around in animal costumes like a bunch of weirdos for no reason.”

“But we _are_ a bunch of weirdos,” Cat Noir pointed out, licking a dribble of ice cream off his finger.

“True,” she agreed. “But weirdos aren’t very reassuring to people—or very intimidating to potential villains.”

He sighed like a disappointed child, but she knew he was playacting. “I guess you’re right.” His expression changed in an instant, from mock pout to sly grin, and he lifted her hand—which was already caught in his—near his mouth. “Can we at least transform for special occasions?” His voice lowered in both pitch and volume. “Like our wedding night?”

“Cat Noir!” Ladybug shrieked, pulling her hand out of his and violently smacking him several times, egged on by his laughter. She was glad her mask hid her face, but she was sure it was still obvious to anyone how hard she was suddenly blushing.

When she stopped smacking him, he caught her hand again. “This is face I fell in love with, Milady,” he said, stroking the backs of two fingers very lightly across the edge of her mask. “Won’t you let a poor cat fulfill a dream or two?”

“Don’t you—” She glanced around, noticing to her horror that an actual circle of onlookers had formed to watch them flirt. “Don’t you think our little friends would have a thing or two to say about that?”

Cat Noir’s mouth twisted in a moue of distaste. Then he brightened, smiling again. “I happen to know where we can get some extremely authentic hand-made replicas.”

Ladybug splayed her hand over his face and pushed him away so he wouldn’t see her blush or her shock. She couldn’t hide from their amused audience, though. “Stop teasing, Kitty. You’re going to make people think you’re a weirdo.”

“As I think we’ve already established—” he said, his words muffled by her hand, but Ladybug didn’t let him finish.

“So this is how it is, is it?” She grabbed his wrist, threw out her yo-yo, and dragged him along as she leapt away from the crowd. When they were safe in the sky, away from eavesdroppers, she continued. “Adrien’s the good boy and Cat Noir’s the bad boy?”

He pouted. “I’m all good boy.” They landed on a rooftop, and he grew serious. “Sorry if I was out of line. I really didn’t mean anything by it. I’m just . . . so excited to marry you. One day. When we’re ready. But . . . ya know . . . ” He rubbed the back of his neck, not looking at her. “ . . . a guy can’t help dreaming.”

Seeing him pine after her like this was so familiar, somehow it was still a shock to realize he was Adrien under that mask.

“You’re not the only one with dreams, Kitty,” she said. His face snapped to her, but took off across the rooftops before clarifying her statement.

#

“Did you really think I’d let you get away without explaining yourself?” Adrien asked.

Marinette tensed, but it was too late. He’d waited patiently and lured her where he wanted her before springing the question without warning. She was in his grasp now, and she couldn’t get away easily.

There wasn’t anyone to help her, either. Nathaniel and Alix were in the art room with Marc. Nino and Alya were in the study room. Nathalie was still at work, and Geneviève was in the nursery. Even Tikki and Plagg were off somewhere else in the house.

Adrien curled in on her a little bit more. They were cuddling on the couch in the living room, just like they used to cuddle on her chaise, with her back against his chest and his legs on either side of her. His hands rested lightly on her waist, her elbows propped on his arms as she held Louis on her chest.

She audibly gulped. “Um, explain what?”

Lowering his head, Adrien nuzzled her hair behind her ear. “What kind of dreams do you have, Marinette?”

She wiggled like she was going to try to escape. “I’ll tell you later.”

“Tell me now. Please? Just one?”

“I-I don’t kn-know what you’re talking about.”

“It’s okay, you can tell me,” he cajoled. “I already know you think I’m”—he put on a lower, huskier voice—“ _not gross_.”

He was met with dead silence for a solid five seconds.

Then Marinette made a sound like she was choking on a laugh.

Then another one.

Then they both burst into a bout of uncontrollable snickering.

Louis woke up and looked at the two of them like he was deeply concerned for their sanity, which just made them crack up harder. How could a baby make a face that proclaimed the absolute madness of the world so clearly? Such drama queens, babies. Everything was an existential crisis.

“Stop! Stop!” Marinette begged, still laughing.

“I’m not doing anything,” Adrien said, barely able to get the words out.

Eventually they got it out of their system, and Marinette settled back against his chest.

“Don’t be mad at me,” he said lightly, resting his chin on her shoulder, “but . . . there’s this sort of caveman part of my brain that wants to take you and make you mine.”

She twisted to the side to look back at him in shock, her face instantly flushed. “Adrien!”

“Or it would,” he continued, “if the more civilized part of my brain hadn’t informed it that it had already done so.” He caressed Louis’s head fondly. “And it can see the proof of that right here. So instead, it’s just sort of sitting smugly in my head, all content and patient.”

Marinette stared at him, her mouth gaping and her face getting redder and redder. “You—I can’t—I can’t believe you!”

He couldn’t deny the fact that his own face was hot, but he maintained a serene smile and waited.

She looked down and seemed to be putting her thoughts together. When she spoke, her voice was very quiet. “Part of me wonders if I’ll ever be able to do that normally, after what happened. Even now, the thought of it really freaks me out.”

“Me, too,” he confessed.

“What? But you said—”

“People can feel two opposite things at once.” Buried memories flashed through his mind. Blood. The horror on her face. Memories that made a hot stone drop into the pit of his stomach. Other memories excited him—softness and heat—but they also revolted him. How could any part of him have enjoyed something that had caused her so much pain? His own body had betrayed him. Worse, it had betrayed the girl he loved, the girl he would give his life for in an instant. How could he ever touch her that way again without being terrified of hurting her? Of making her hate him? “We’ll be fine, Marinette,” he told himself and her. And they would be. He was sure of it. He had faith. “When the time’s right, it’s gonna be amazing. And if there are problems, we’ll work through them. Together. We’re a team, remember. We’re partners. Our relationship may not have had an easy start—”

“It could have. If one or both of us had been paying more attention.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “But that doesn’t matter now. We worked through it and won in the end. Just like we always will.”

She reached up and put a hand on his cheek, gazing back at him like he was the source of all light in the universe. “Always and forever,” she agreed. “I love you so much, Adrien, sometimes I feel like I’m going to pop.”

He kissed her, lingering on the softness of her lips, treasuring the feeling as his heart thundered in his chest. When the kiss ended, he pressed his head against hers and squeezed her even tighter. “Me too, Marinette. I love you that much, too.”

It was a wonderful moment that should have lasted a lot longer than it did. Unfortunately, it was interrupted by an annoying kwami making a rude noise and saying, “I thought you two were watching a movie. Now we find you playing kissy face in public?”

Adrien groaned. “Plagg, has anyone ever told you how annoying you are?”

For some reason, Plagg’s eyes went to Louis, like he expected the baby to back him up or something. “Someone might have mentioned it once. We gonna watch a movie or what?”

Tikki flew in behind him. “Plagg! You’re being rude!”

“Nah, Adrien loves me! Don’t ya, kid?”

Adrien did, but he refused to give Plagg the satisfaction of an answer.

Plagg pretended he’d agreed anyway. “You guys start it up, I’m gonna get snacks,” he said, flying toward the kitchen. “Do we have any cheese crackers?”

Tikki shrugged. “Sorry to interrupt your cuddle time.”

Marinette held her hand out to her kwami. “You’re welcome to join us.”

With no hesitation whatsoever, Tikki squealed and dove into Marinette’s hand, taking the place that Marinette offered on her chest next to Louis.

Adrien sighed, picked up the remote, and started scanning for a movie. By the time Plagg returned with a bag of cheese popcorn, cheese crackers, and drinks, he had one queued up. Plagg plunked himself down on Adrien’s shoulder and loudly munched snacks as the movie started.

_My life is ridiculous_ , Adrien thought. A fifteen-year-old father curled up in a big cuddle with his fiancée, their baby, and their magical beings that gave them superpowers. In what world did any of that make sense? It was basically impossible. But it had happened.

_My life is . . . miraculous._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we've finally come to the end! Whew, what an epic journey. If you've actually made it this far, thanks so much for sticking with me. I really hope you enjoyed the story. Considering I was hesitant to even post this crazy thing at first, I've been very surprised by the response it's gotten.
> 
> You may notice that I've made this the first part of a series. No, I'm not planning on doing a full-length sequel, but I'd like to do at least one (and maybe more) ficlet one-shot sequels, and I thought it'd be easier to do that in series form rather than as more chapters. The main one I want to write is to show what happens with Luka in the future, but if you have any ideas of characters or relationships you'd like to see more of or any more specific requests, feel free to leave them in a comment. I won't promise I'll do any of them, but I'll consider them.
> 
> What's next?  
> \- I need to give this story a full edit, of course. Once I do so, I'll make a professionally-formatted (including a cover) e-book file that people can download from my website. When it's ready, I plan to post one more 'chapter' to this fic that'll just be extras like that, as well as fan art someone was kind enough to draw, and we'll see if anything else comes to mind to add.  
> \- I've been thinking that I might also post a (separate) abridged version of this story. It's a pretty massive fic, and there might be people who are intimidated by the length or just want something more tightly focused on the Adrien/Marinette relationship, so I may try to edit together a version that's around 100k (while still being a satisfying read in itself).  
> \- I've also got another Miraculous WIP called "Who and Whose" (totally different AU), which I'd like to get back to. Hopefully. If I can finish it before any new episodes air. I'd like to write it in full before posting any more of it, though.
> 
> Feel free to leave any questions or comments about anything. I may not necessarily answer all questions (for a variety of reasons), but then again, I might. If anyone has any feedback on my writing, I'd appreciate hearing it. What did you like? What did you think could have been better? Did the fic almost lose you at any points? (Not looking for fanfic-specific things like, “I don’t think this action was in character for this person,” but rather for feedback that can help me grow as a writer. If you just disagree with my interpretation of canon, that’s not really the type of feedback that will help me.) What would you say are the strongest parts of my writing, and which things do you think I should work on? I won't respond to any feedback of this sort.
> 
> Thanks again for reading, everyone! It's been a joy to read your comments. It always makes me very happy when people enjoy my work.


	129. Notes

The downloadable e-book file is now available on my website: <https://www.shawnacanon.com/baby-boom>

(ETA: Updated the ebook files on 2/25/21 to fix some typos. Much thanks to ThrawnCA for the proofread!)

A wonderful artist who goes by [sisiwako](https://www.instagram.com/sisiwako/) on Instagram was kind enough to create cover art of Adrien and Marinette cuddling for me. It's really adorable! I would post it here, but I can't figure out how to add images (it seems like something's changed since the last time I did so). She also made some adorable fanart sketches based on this fic. You should go check out her work if you haven't already! (ETA: I figured out how to post the cover, at least!)

I went through and did the edit, but it's mostly pretty small stuff, and given the number of chapters, I don't think it's worth the time for me to manually copy/paste each one here. So the e-book version is the best, most final version for those who care about that sort of thing.

You may have seen that I've posted several sequel fics. I've got ideas for a bunch more (including some that people requested after I asked on the last chapter), but I'm not really sure when/if I'll get to them. Maybe soon, maybe never. They'll drop when they drop, I guess. Whenever I decide the 'Baby Boom' sequels are done, I'll probably post an e-book version of them on my website as well.

In other news, I’ve noticed a lot of authors talking about the Discord server on their fic notes and putting up a link, so I popped on over and set up an account, incognito-like.

Hoo boy. 

If I ever start getting too many positive comments that I get up on myself, I know where to go. I don’t even want to know what kind of person those folks imagine me to be.

Really, they hate me and my work so much that all I can do is laugh. So when I see people leaving their story notes, “Hey, join this Discord server! Everyone’s super nice and supportive!” I’m just like, “Yeah, I’m gonna have to pass on that one. I’d feel like the stranger walking into town in a western movie.”

But it didn't hurt my feelings or anything. If an author is to create work that anyone loves, it has to be bold enough for some people to hate it.

Writing this fic was a bit of a ride. It was an idea that popped into my head, and I'm not even sure where it came from. I immediately laughed it off and thought, "No, I obviously can't actually write that." But then the story just started writing itself in my head, and I thought, "Well, I'll just write for a bit and see if it goes anywhere." When I started getting into it, my target wordcount was 80k. (Obviously, I have no idea how to hit target wordcounts.) When I was around 60k in and had been writing the story for about three months (I started writing it in the last few days of 2019), I was extremely hesitant to post it. I went back and forth on it a lot before finally deciding, "Well, if people hate it, I can take it down. But it seems like a waste to write a whole novel and not even see if anyone else might like to read it." The rest is history, I guess. I pantsed it at the beginning, developed a loose outline about 1/3 of the way through, and kept developing the outline more and more as I went. Even though it took me way longer to get places than I wanted it to, I never actually lost control of the story, and I was never wandering around aimlessly, reluctant to let it go (despite what some of my critics seem to think). It went exactly how I wanted it to; it just took longer than I expected to get there (in hindsight, I probably should have split it into at least two stories, but that's the danger of WIPs), and I did fill in some unexpected stuff along the way (because that's part of what makes writing fun for me). I'd originally meant it to feel like a season 2 fic, with Luka and Kagami having only cameos, but I kept putting in more and more references to season 3 as I went, because it was natural. I wasn't planning Marc to be in it at all until I sat down and thought, "Hey, let's put Marc in it!" That whole Second Chance reveal part was a direct response to the reader feedback, because people were getting frustrated and I wanted to 1) try to provide a little catharsis and 2) try to explain why it was actually still far too early for the reveal to happen. I hadn't expected Luka or Nino and Alya to discover LB & CN's identities until I wrote those parts. I originally meant for Alix and Nathaniel to be purely friends-having-babies until I decided they'd be cute together. I seriously debated with myself (for, like, a few hours) about having Luka get caught in the gas with Rose, going over the various potential outcomes of that, before deciding to scrap the idea entirely. The lizard aliens were always aliens, but they were only lizards when I got to the paragraph where I had to describe them (and no, I do not regret the alien overlord part in the slightest; its WTFness is what makes it great). I knew from very early on that Gabriel would essentially get away with everything, and I knew that wasn't going to satisfy everyone, but it was what I considered right for the story, because I wanted Adrien to have the happiest ending possible, and that goal is incompatible with Gabriel facing any kind of comeuppance. 

Two of the hardest things about writing Miraculous fic are coming up with puns and coming up with akumatized supervillains. There were 25 villains in this story (not counting those given no descriptions at all), 18 of them totally original, though I was able to get away with only 12 fight scenes, give or take. (My favorite villain in this fic was Slothra, because it makes me laugh.)

I know there are a lot of aspects of this concept that I barely touched on (just to acknowledge that they would be issues) or didn't touch on at all. The main reason is because each one of those other potential issues would have been a novel in itself, and the story already had plenty to work with. If anyone wants to write their own takes on this concept or AUs of this story or anything like that, feel free to do so. (Just please use the 'inspired by' feature to link to this fic.)

I'd like to write more 'Baby Boom' sequel fics, but I'm not sure if I will. I'd like to finish 'Who and Whose', but I'm not sure if I will. I even have some ideas for other one-shots, but who knows if I'll get around to them? This fandom is starting to tire me out.

So thank you so much to everyone who's supported me and this fic. Your positive comments are what kept me writing. If I've helped brighten up your year at all, I'm happy.

ETA: I was amused to see that this fanfic now has a TV Tropes page: <https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/BabyBoom> (I will admit that I don't know how TV Tropes works as far as organization, so I'm not sure if this counts as a 'real' page or not, but it was interesting to see that someone took the time to do this nonetheless.)


End file.
